What was outside the universe just after it formed?

So many articles state: The universe was xxx in size after 1 second or even after 1 nanosecond. The sizes vary from meters to light-years, at least according to my source. Now this information, which comes from a reasonable scientific site, calls for two interesting questions:

- Since it had a 'size', it also means it had a perimeter, and this begs the question: What was outside of this perimeter?

- Also, if you ask today, where is the center of the Universe, all scientists say, there is no center. How can there be no center if the universe had specific sizes just after the Big Bang, this is conflicting information.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2018-10-big-bangan-eyewitness-account.html

2021-01-15T19:52:17Z

So many people avoid those statements made by scientists that the universe was xx in size after xx time after the Big Bang. "Size", means limitation. Don't talk about Earth that has no edge but still is unlimited, if you keep walking. But on Earth we still can go up. So if we scale this to the Universe where is the 'up' part in the universe? Also don't talk the observable universe, because the Big Bang was the creation of everything, including the non-observable universe.

2021-01-15T19:57:05Z

Loose from the question itself I believe that the universe and space are two separate entities. The universe was always there, even if it had no single property whatsoever, or a property we don't understand. Space is like and oil spill in the ocean, but expanding and later on collapsing, while the universe itself stays put. I believe space is finite and it ends somewhere, to a point you can't go further. We humans need space, so you can't go outside it.

?2021-01-14T16:24:00Z

It's easy to duck and dive around the basic thrust of your question ,but in reality , there are only two honest answers.

Either the universe, when it formed, was the creation of existence itself -- that there is no concept of existence ,either before or "outside" of our universe .

-- Or ,our "universe" formed within ,or from, a prior existing (infinite) universe -- at which point, the origin of the universe becomes the "it's turtles all the way down answer "

Anonymous2021-01-14T11:39:47Z

That's like asking what's further north than north pole z
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jeffdanielk2021-01-14T05:36:24Z

Don't confuse the whole universe with the visible universe. 1 nanosec after the Big Bang, what is now the part of the universe we can see was a small sphere. There was lots more space beyond it.
The center of your observable universe is where you are. You see 46 billion light years in all directions. But the entire universe has no center.

You said if the entire universe has a size, it must have a perimeter boundary. This is not true. It could be finite but unbounded. The surface of the earth is finite, it has a size, a circumference and area, but no edge.

nineteenthly2021-01-13T07:23:15Z

There is no outside because the Universe is everything.

quantumclaustrophobe2021-01-12T23:12:07Z

For all intents and purposes... we don't *know* what's beyond our universe. There may be nothing; there may be a 'parent' universe, there may be a multitude of other universes... but, there's nowhere we can point to that leads to 'outside' our universe.

Picture it this way... an ant is walking on the surface of a beach ball. It's being blown up - so, the *surface* he's walking on is getting larger - but is there a center? That 2-D surface is a representation of our 3-D universe - you can travel forever, and not come to an edge of any kind; There's no 'perimeter' we'd be able to encounter.

As for the 'center' of the universe - that works also with the beach ball... imagine it's going in reverse; the surface is getting smaller and smaller. Eventually, it's just a tiny, nearly dimensionless *point* in space. The *whole universe* is in that point. Then, it begins to expand... that expansion occurs everywhere, and more or less equally... that means that there's no single 'center' to that surface - or, if you wish, *everywhere* is the center... which means the center was where I am, *and* it's where you are. Everywhere was in the center.

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