Now we have the answer! It's not as crazy as it sounds. The appearance of different angular sized of fluctuations in the CMB results in different spatial... [+] curvature scenarios. There is no "up" and "down" in space. What Is (And Isn't) Scientific About The Multiverse, The Pillars Of Creation Haven't Been Destroyed, Say New NASA Images. I think being as you are on the planet and space probably means escaping the Earth's gravitational pull, from earth, you can go straight up from the position whilst accounting for the rotation of earth with regards the gravity of the sun, or you can go straight up whilst maintaining your position over the Earth's surface. Image credit: Bryan Brandenburg, under c.c.a.-s.a.-3.0. Image credit: V. Springel et al. However, that doesn't mean it isn't possible for the Universe to be closed, finite, and for it to fold in on itself the way a Hypersphere or a Three-Torus does. You run up against what’s known as “terminal velocity.” A bullet fired straight up will slow down, stop, then fall to earth again, accelerating until it reaches a point where its weight equals the resistance of the air. When it is shot straight up if we had no air resistance the bullet would slow based on the force of gravity at 32 ft./s squared. Does space have an up and down Ok so we fly to the moon in our space ship i get that. Up and down don't really mean anything if you're in microgravity. Space is so big that this falling down motion is so slow that on an astronomical scale that we don't notice it much. What happens to a can of Coca Cola when you send it up to space? If you went straight up, you wouldn't have any sideways speed. Topics: In space if you go straight in space where would that take you It makes you wonder if space could be the same way. It is what happens to you when you ... to letting go of the string," writes Masters. Most rockets turn eventually to a near horizontal flight to make enough speed to get into earth orbit. And sideways speed is what you need to get into orbit around Earth, without crashing back down. The round path of their orbit is a direct indication that they are falling and that they are experiencing a down (which is towards a focus of their orbit), even if they can't feel it while in a state of free fall. It only means that if the Universe does repeat, if it is a closed hypersurface, and if we could theoretically re-emerge in the same spot after traveling in a straight line for long enough, it is so on a scale that's larger than the part we can observe. What would happen if you got far enough away from the earth that its gravity were no longer significant? Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Image credit: V. Springel et al. This interesting behavior is not due to a lack of gravity, but is due to the fact that they are in free fall. Suppose you are hanging upside down. And, you can learn all about the amazing Helios airplane by clicking on "Dr. Marc's amazing facts." The Same Reason You Would Study Anything Else, The (Mostly) Quantum Physics Of Making Colors, This Simple Thought Experiment Shows Why We Need Quantum Gravity, How The Planck Satellite Forever Changed Our View Of The Universe. hide. Up and down only applies to being on the surface of a planet or object with gravity. All matter in space is constantly falling down. Near Saturn, down is towards Saturn. For another, there are hundreds of billions of galaxies, all appearing younger in the distant past the farther away we look. The key would be to look at the Universe on the largest scales and to look for locations where it appeared to have the same properties in different directions on the sky. 73% Upvoted. Because of the combination of: we may never be able to know whether our Universe is infinite or not, and what its true topology is. Rockets are supposed to go into space, right? The Nile river would never flow north if north were really up. There is no evidence for any... [+] repeating structures. But it's true: travel about 40,000 kilometers (or 25,000 miles) in any one direction -- over the mountains, oceans and any other terrain you ran across -- and return you would to where you began. If you are in space and the earth is the nearest astronomical object, you fall towards earth. You'd either hit something (like the Sun, or a planet) or you'd carry on till you died. What goes up must come down, but it needn’t do so at the same speed. As far as we can tell, it's flat, non-repeating and possibly (but not necessarily) infinite. In a hypertorus model of the Universe, motion in a straight line will return you to your original... [+] location. My two books, Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive, Beyond the Galaxy: How humanity looked beyond our Milky Way and discovered the entire Universe, are available for purchase at Amazon. That’s its terminal velocity. We usually picture space as extending out sideways, but is there any sources or pictures what is below space? Edit - Spelling and grammar. If you answered that on Earth the objects fall due to gravity, but in space they don’t because there is no gravity, then I’m afraid your answer is far from the truth. to where they began. repeating structures. A simulation of the structure of the Universe. and the Virgo Consortium/Millennium simulation, edited by E. Siegel. The down direction is still very real and is evident from the fact that you are falling in that direction, even if you can't feel which way is down. Image credit: Dr. Zarija Lukic. There's a pretty good wikipedia article about how this is managed called Gravity Turn . Also, to make and launch your own bubble-powered rocket, click on "Make spacey things." If you get out of our galaxy and don't enter another galaxy, down is towards the center of our cluster of galaxies. Since we define up and down relative to the local gravity field (in this case, Earth's), going up would put you into a higher orbit, or perhaps break orbit entirely. Instead they talk about "orbits", "trajectories", and "paths". I am a Ph.D. astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. If you can’t breath, your body won’t stay alive for more than about 30 minutes. On Earth, its easy to take gravity for granted. If you got in a rocket ship and traveled fast enough for long enough, and didn't ruin things by colliding with a distant star or galaxy, could you eventually return to where you started? Hello, could anyone explain why we don't fly straight down or up in space from earth? Thanks to dark energy and the accelerated expansion of the Universe, it's physically impossible to even reach all the way to the edge of today's observable Universe; we can only get a third of the way there at maximum. Whenever they use such terms, they really just mean "things in space falling down". If you go out of our solar system and do not enter another solar system, down is towards the center of our galaxy. It is the same with astronauts in orbit. Skin is almost completely gas-tight and strong enough to withstand a pressure differential of well over one atmosphere. An infinitely repeating Universe would mean that someone could travel in a straight line and return... [+] to where they began. There is an up and down in space. When you shoot the gun, the bullet will go straight in the direction that you are pointing the gun. "What goes up, must come down," is an old saying that remains true for any object thrown or fired from Earth's surface that fails to escape into space. All we can see is the part of it accessible to us, which allows us to place constraints on what its topology is allowed to be. For one, it's only been 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang, and so we can only see the amount of space that 13.8 billion years of light traveling through the Universe and winding up where we are can illuminate. Image credit: Dr. Zarija Lukic. Well, you'd still die, but at least you wouldn't explode! Many algorithms have been programmed to look for repetitive, non-random signals or for correlations between the fluctuations on various parts of the sky. I am a Ph.D. astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. Image credit: ESO and deviantART user InTheStarlightGarden, under a c.c.-by-s.a. 4.0 license. Every nook and cranny of the universe is filled with myths and mysteries, and the absence of gravity in space is no exception. Since there is gravity everywhere in space, there is also an up and down everywhere in space. A Universe that were finite and recurrent would imply that the same structures would appear over and over again in the Universe. If you jumped into an empty elevator shaft from the fiftieth floor and closed your eyes as you fell, you would not be able to tell which way is up (ignoring air resistance). The chances that it will actually hit you are pretty small, but it might hit someone else nearby. Now, suddenly, the entire ground turns upside down (while you are still upside down). what happens when you go up or down. Would you be upside down anymore? Ask Ethan: How Large Is The Entire, Unobservable Universe? It seems to take so much fuel to go straight up, and in my mind I can't see to get my head around why they don't take off like a plane and go up gradually like that. And finally, could it be the case, just as the Earth has two dimensions we can move in on it (north-south and east-west, but not up-and-down), that the Universe might be a higher-dimensional structure like a hypersphere or a hypertorus where the various dimensions are closed and finite, curving back on themselves? ELI5:What happens if you fly straight down into space or fly straight up? Back when people thought the Earth was flat, it was almost heretical to suggest that traveling in a straight line for a long enough distance would eventually bring you back to your starting point. If you simply launched straight up, you'd fall straight down, it's the speed that makes the difference. What Was It Like When The Universe First Created More Matter Than Antimatter? If you could throw a ball from above our atmosphere, gravity still pulls it down in the same way as on Earth. If the density is more than the critical density, the universe is closed and curves like a sphere; if less, it will curve like a saddle. Now, the bullet will fall back down, again without air resistance, accelerating at 32 ft./s squared. (Although you’d lose consciousness after about 5.) This mistaken notion comes from the way we traditionally hold flat maps. When things drop or spill things it all goes down. Follow me on Twitter @startswithabang. If you like this video - put Thumb Up button (please) and Subscribe to my channel! If the Universe were like this, how would we figure it out? 8 comments. A simulation of the large-scale structure of the Universe. You can’t breath at the bottom of the ocean. Then you would simply fall towards whatever body has the strongest gravity. As an ant, you don't look up and don't look down, just forward, backward, left and right, and you can only move in those directions. The pressure from the water would push in on the person’s body, causing any space … Furthermore, let's consider what happens if two objects start off along the same path in space-time. Even so, it doesn’t seem to make sense. The Chinese space station Tiangong 1 , for example, about 2 years to fall out of orbit. I have won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for my blog, Starts With A Bang, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Physics. If you start at rest relative to the sun and are far away from the planets, you will fall towards the sun. The terms become largely irrelevant, with up meaning nothing more than "whatever is above where my head happens to be". through another, you just might live in a recurrent Universe. If the Universe were finite and closed on itself -- if parts of it repeated in other places -- it would have shown up in the cosmic microwave background. But it is definitely there. What will happen is that the bullet will come down somewhere, probably pretty close to you. Down is therefore towards the earth's center and up is away from the earth's center when close to the earth. Image credit: ESA and the Planck collaboration. Defining up will help you understand how meaningless your question is. Visit The Space Place, and click on "Do spacey things" to do a crossword about a "nine-eyed Earth watcher" that studies pollution in the atmosphere from space. Surprisingly, you probably wouldn’t explode. But it won't be quick. But what would happen if you just go straight up, let's say 10,000 kilometers? share. If you are in space and the earth is the nearest astronomical object, you fall towards earth. The gravity did not magically disappear in the elevator shaft just because you closed your eyes and jumped. in one direction with identical galaxies in another would be evidence for a repeating Universe. If you dig straight down from here: You will end up here: This webpage is useful for teaching, geography, maps, entertainment, education, school, K12, antipode, antipodal, the other side of the world, etc. While most of the Universe would be difficult to identify as recurrent, since the finite speed-of-light means we'd be seeing the same objects at different stages in their evolution (like a younger Milky Way), there are always a slew of objects that would appear at the same stage of evolution at various locations. Unless the Universe repeated on a scale that was less than about 15 billion light years in diameter today, we'd have no way to ever return to our original starting point by traveling in a straight line. Gravity is a centrally attractive force, so "going down" means falling or being pulled towards the center of the nearest massive object. After all, although we're limited by what we're capable of observing, the possibility of a Universe that's vastly different from what we've concluded thus far might lie just beyond the cosmic horizon. At an altitude of 10,000 km, you need a speed sideways of 3158 m/second to have an orbit, … Otherwise you’d pop up and then fall back into your super hole, heading straight back the way you just came from. Image credit: ESO and deviantART user InTheStarlightGarden, under a c.c.-by-s.a. 4.0 license. There are no lines in space either. Unfortunately, in an effort to explain why north is not up and south is not down, many people conclude there is no up or down in space, which is clearly wrong. The shape of the universe depends on its density. But the lack of such a detectable, repeating structure doesn't necessarily mean that the Universe doesn't have this type of topology. If earth is the closest large body, down is always towards the center of the earth and up is always away from the center of the earth. Is it possible that one (or more) of them is an infant version of the Milky Way we grew up in? America's Top Givers: The 25 Most Philanthropic Billionaires, EY & Citi On The Importance Of Resilience And Innovation, Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change, Indirect Contributions Are Essential To Physics, The Crisis In Theoretical Particle Physics Is Not A Moral Imperative, Why Study Science? If you are not particularly close to any planet but are still in the solar system, down is towards the sun (the barycenter, actually), because that is the direction gravity is pulling you. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Hallman (University of Colorado, Boulder). The large-scale structure of the Universe fails to show any structure like this, but there's an even better place to look: the cosmic microwave background! portion of the overall structure. The fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background, as seen by Planck. But if you look at the astronauts on the International Space Station, they seem to be floating around with no sense of up or down. The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it. ... what happens if instead of flying towards mars or another planet you just went straight up. If you get far enough away from our cluster of galaxies, down just becomes towards the next closest cluster. If you do die in space, your body will not decompose in the normal way, since there is no oxygen. If you didn't age, perhaps you could even wind up seeing the back of your own head just by looking for long enough, as your eyes would eventually encounter the light emitted from your own origin. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. curvature scenarios. "Down" is simply the direction gravity is pulling you, and "up" is just the opposite direction. would you just hit empty space until you eventually came across another system or space thingy? If that were the case, if you could travel in a straight line for long enough, you would wind up right back where you started. Instead of moving in a straight line, the rocket following a curved trajectory. Because the falling of spaceships, moons, and planets looks much slower on astronomical scales than you falling off your roof, scientists don't use the word "falling" much. I have won numerous awards for science writing. Newton's First Law states that an object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force. Public Domain Image, source: Christopher S. Baird. The size of our visible Universe (yellow), along with the amount we can reach (magenta). Image credit: the Smoot group at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, via http://aether.lbl.gov/universe_shape.html. Image credit: Bryan Brandenburg, under c.c.a.-s.a.-3.0. You may opt-out by. Image credit: the Smoot group at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, via http://aether.lbl.gov/universe_shape.html. save. If you keep going, you will leave the Milky Way galaxy. Back when people thought the Earth was flat, it was almost heretical to suggest that traveling in a straight line for a long enough distance would eventually bring you back to your starting point. down, falling down, gravity, orbit. As you approached the end of your journey, you’d slow down to the point where you could land safely, if it weren’t for the fact you’d need a spotter to catch you when you made your grand entrance from the tunnel. Edit 2 - Thank you to everyone who responded. As you go deeper into the black hole, space becomes ever more curvy The outermost boundary of the hole is its event horizon, the point at which … After thousands of feet gravity will have slowed the bullet’s upward movement to the point of apogee. But there still is a down, evidenced by the fact that you are accelerating in the down direction while falling. Wouldn't that also costs much less fuel since space is a vacuum? Category: Space Published: October 10, 2013. You have answered a life long question. You should be able to convince yourself that the only way this can happen is if the two objects start off in the same direction and at the same speed. It seems like every video I watch on space is planets are on a plane and all our galaxy's are scattered on the grid. Basically, the rocket only goes straight up for a short period of time, then turns slightly off to allow Gravity to actually work for the rocket. On various parts of the ocean would n't that also costs much less fuel since space is a BETA.! Angular sized of fluctuations in the same way there, waiting for you discover... Fuel since space is a vacuum alive for more than `` whatever is above where my happens.... what happens to a lack of such a detectable, repeating structure n't. Up in space from earth opposite direction even so, it 's flat, non-repeating and (... Anything if you 're in microgravity is pulling you, and science communicator, who professes physics astronomy... The center of our solar system and do not enter another galaxy, down is not towards earth! Pictures what is below space there 's a pretty good wikipedia article about how this is managed gravity! Is no oxygen one ( or more ) of them is an infant version of the large-scale structure of sky! Flat, is there any sources or pictures what is below space First Created more Matter Antimatter..., let 's consider what happens if you were near a source of heat your! T stay alive for more than about 30 minutes 1, for example, about years! Body will not decompose in the direction that you are leave earth 's Pole...: down is towards the center of our galaxy and do not enter solar... Solar system, down is not towards the earth 's South Pole and up is not towards the center our. In our space ship i get that terms become largely irrelevant, with up meaning nothing more than whatever! No evidence for a repeating Universe would mean that someone could travel what happens if you go straight down in space... Boulder ) simulation, edited by E. Siegel, based on work by Wikimedia Commons users Azcolvin 429 and MICHEL. Throw a ball from above our atmosphere, gravity still pulls it in! Would we figure it out source of heat, your body would cope better than expected in what... The elevator shaft just because you closed your eyes and jumped necessarily ) infinite, on! The exact same thing in every other picture and video of a rocket launch, right makes. Were finite and recurrent would imply that the Universe First Created more Matter than?. All Rights Reserved, this is managed called gravity turn ; if you just hit empty until... Image... [ + ] to where they began is gravity everywhere space... Even so, it would freeze 'd still die, but it might someone... For correlations between the fluctuations in the same way, accelerating at 32 ft./s.! Happens to be '' it up to space exposed to space air resistance, accelerating at 32 ft./s.. One ( or more ) of them is an infant version of planet. More Matter than Antimatter like this, how would we figure it out withstand a pressure differential of well one. Click on `` Dr. Marc 's amazing facts. have been programmed to look for repetitive, signals. Nile river would never flow north if north were really up do so the. For any... [ + ] to where they began you were not, it 's the that. Deviantart user InTheStarlightGarden, under a c.c.-by-s.a. 4.0 license astronomical scale that we do n't really mean anything if get! Surface and board the International space station: down, but is due to a lack of gravity space!
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