How big is the Universe? (Creator, God, Allah, Qur'an)

[Cordoba]

According to the Muslim belief, the human soul stays alive and returns to its Creator after the body dies

One day we shall all return to our Creator, and only then will we really see and understand how vast is this immense universe!

Peace and all the best

[ben d]

Originally Posted by Cordoba

According to the Muslim belief, the human soul stays alive and returns to its Creator after the body dies

One day we shall all return to our Creator, and only then will we really see and understand how vast is this immense universe!

Peace and all the best

Yes, in general this is a universal theme, but to avoid the possibility of dualistic misunderstanding, some teachings talk of this process as 'merging' with the Oneness/Unity,,or 'being born of the spirit'.
Perhaps it would be more precise to describe this process as being a realization that the perception of being separated from Allah was all the while ignorance.
Also, again to avoid the confusing dualistic terminology, this process does not take place after the body dies, but in the 'now'. That the body will drop away when full enlightenment is attained is a natural simultaneous consequence because it (the body) has served its purpose.
For those who 'die' while still in their ignorance, that is another story.

[Cordoba]

Going back to science, here is an interesting question:

What is the Biggest Star in the Universe?

Before we jump straight to the answer, let's take a look at our own Sun for a sense of scale. Our familiar star is a mighty 1.4 million km across (870,000 miles). That's such a huge number that it's hard to get a sense of scale. The Sun accounts for 99.9% of all the matter in our Solar System. In fact, you could fit one million planet Earths inside the Sun.

Astronomers use the terms "solar radius" and "solar mass" to compare large and smaller stars, so we'll do the same. A solar radius is 690,000 km (432,000 miles) and a solar mass is 2 x 1030 kilograms (4.3 x 1030 pounds). That's 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.

One huge, famous star in our galaxy is the monster Eta Carinae, located approximately 7,500 light years away, and weighing in at 100 solar masses.

It's 4 million times as bright as the Sun. Most stars blow with a solar wind, losing mass over time. But Eta Carinae is so large that it casts off 500 times the mass of the Earth every year. With so much mass lost, it's very difficult for astronomers to accurately measure where the star ends, and its stellar wind begins.

So the best answer astronomers have right now is that Eta Carinae's radius is 400 times the size of the Sun. And as star size estimates go, that's pretty accurate.
And one interesting side note: Eta Carinae should explode pretty soon as one of the most spectacular supernovae humans have ever seen

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/04/06/what-is-the-biggest-star-in-the-universe/

What a star!

[camanintx]

Originally Posted by Cordoba

What a star!

Why didn't you cut and paste the next paragraph from this article?

But that's nothing. The largest known star is VY Canis Majoris; a red hypergiant star in the constellation Canis Major, located about 5,000 light-years from Earth. University of Minnesota professor Roberta Humphreys recently calculated its upper size at more than 2,100 times the size of the Sun. Placed in our Solar System, its surface would extend out past the orbit of Saturn. Light takes more than 8 hours to cross its circumference!

[Cordoba]

You're right Caman

And to continue:

Some astronomers disagree, and think that VY Canis Majoris might be smaller; merely 600 times the size of the Sun, extending past the orbit of Mars.

That's the biggest star that we know of, but the Milky way probably has dozens of stars that are even larger, obscured by gas and dust so we can't see them ...

But according to theorists, how big can stars get? ...

a cool supergiant would be 2,600 times the size of the Sun.

That, she believes, is the largest possible star

[Cordoba]

To answer the question of this thread, after having seen from science how immense this universe really is, this hadith gives us a clue to what is beyond our universe, and how small and insignificant it is compared to the seven heavens and what is beyond:

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said:

"the worldly heaven in comparison to the second heaven is like a ring in a desert,

and the second heaven to the third is like a ring in a desert,

and the third to the fourth is like a ring in a desert,

and the fourth to the fifth is like a ring in a desert,

and the fifth to the sixth is like a ring in a desert,

and the sixth to the seventh is like a ring in a desert,

and the seventh to the kursiy is like a ring in a desert, and the kursi to the Throne of Allah (SWT) is like a ring in a desert."

That's how "small" our "immense" universe is !

[Tau]

The universe is finite, but it does not have a particular volume because the universe is not static, it is inflating.

So your question cannot be answered properly, because by the time we have measured it it has grown since.
Although we can tell you how big it was yesterday and how big it will be tommorow!

There are at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe, vast is not adequate enough a word to describe the inconcievable immensity of the cosmos.

[ben d]

Originally Posted by Tau

The universe is finite, but it does not have a particular volume because the universe is not static, it is inflating.

Oh,...until now I understood that it was a matter of ongoing scientific conjecture as to the different theories pertaining to the universe!
That the 'finite' universe theory is in the dominant position in academic circles does mean that they get to have greater influence in the media, but this does not mean that it is fact! Alternative theories are challenging the contemporary orthodoxy.
Unless of course you are prepared to claim divine revelation?
IMHO infinity IS, because it couldn't be any other way,.but I do understand that human mortal curiosity must reduce infinity to a concept of finiteness so that the brain is able to deal with the local perceptions in time and space.

[DarkSun]

Originally Posted by camanintx

Data from the Wilkenson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has determined, within the limits of instrument error, that the universe is flat.

I'll have to look into that. Thanks.