From the philosophical point of view the Universe understand space, the world or the nature as the term. From astronomical - the Universe is a set of everything existing, spaces, time, physical laws, available to observation in the present or in the near future. There was earlier a term Metagalaxy which called the astronomical Universe. But presently it almost went out of use.
Instruction
1. According to the latest data the size of the Universe is not less than 93 billion light years though only 13.3 billion light years are available to observation. The age of the Universe is estimated in 13.6-13.85 billion years. Though there is also a point of view that the Universe existed eternally. Ideas of the Universe form are also challenged by scientists.
2. In global representation the Universe – the extending space similar on structure to a ragged sponge. "Scraps" in this case are congestions of galaxies. And distance between each of galaxies approximately equally in one million light years. Galaxies have the sizes in several hundreds of thousands of light years and consist of billions of stars rotating around the center of the galaxy. It is considered that the majority of stars has own planets.
3. After the fact of expansion of the Universe was open and, by means of the Hubble Telescope it is measured quantitatively, it became a basis of the theory of the Big Bang. This theory explains emergence of the Universe as a result of antimatter explosion, allows to calculate age of the Universe. The theory of the Big Bang – not the only theory of origin of the Universe, but it is the cornerstone of modern cosmology.
4. The Universe form is up to the end not studied. And the point is not that it cannot be described as some figure. The problem is that Universe space probably not flat. In places of a congestion of massive objects, distortions of space and time because of what the form of the Universe can be distorted very spatially are observed.
5. Now the Universe continues to extend and even a certain acceleration of this expansion is observed. But theoretically this expansion will begin to slow down gravitationally over time, and the Universe can "collapse" as a result of big compression. According to other theories, the Universe can die as a result of Big freezing or overheating.
6. There is a point of view according to which our Universe – only a small part and along with other Universes makes still big essence – the Metauniverse or the Multiuniverse. Quite perhaps, in other Universes there are other physical laws differing from ours. But, it is obvious that in no way it is impossible to check this theory.