just because i'm curious and don't actually know what the answer is i thought i'd ask you guys (very informative in the past you have been. talk like yoda i must.)

ok solar system = planets around a particular star
galaxy = collection of solar systems
universe = collection of galaxies (i may have gotten the last two confused)

if space is indeed infinite what would you call a collection of universes...
or would there only be one universe as all the matter in the infinite space had been collected at a single point and then spread into the nearbye vicinity after the big bang (the last is just random hypothesis on my part that popped into my head because i have a.d.d.)

all i'm really asking for here is, is there a term for a collection of universes or is the "universe" the be all/end all term for the infnitness of space (assuming that space is, in fact, infinite)

If you believe that the membrane theory (Brane Theory) is possible/true. A theory where universes are stacked together like pages in a book. Then this collection of universes would be called a Multiverse. Hope that helps you Keerax.

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I have grasped the bull by the tail and am lookin' 'im right in the eye.

it helps, in that it gives me another term to mull over and i appreciate that. my brain likes to group things together into categories (i.e. all c's fit into b, all b's fit into a and a is the only one that has no multiples... if that makes any sense at all) and i was just trying to figure out where we stop classifying things as multiple and just call it one (gigantic mind you) object or thing

the next question would be
what do you call multiple multiverses ;) unless that is, in fact, where it stops at *wanders off to read about Brane Theory*

thanks again :D

**Edit: gah hate spelling errors

I may not be the most qualified person to answer your questions but I take a crack at it just for the exercise.

Solar system = planets & junque that orbits the star Sol (our star). Hence Solar system.
Stellar system = stars/planets orbiting a particular star.
galaxy = collection of stars whether they are stellar systems or not
universe = collection of everything.
This is not as simple a question as you might think. There is a tremendous amount of discussion about this, in the astronomical/cosmological community, which I will not even attempt to explain here. Generally speeking, the concept of more than one universe is called the "multiverse". I think somebody else, who is better informed than I, will have to point you to a web site that does a good job explaining the various "multiverse" concepts. What I've read in Scientific American and other science resources, would take days of typing to even partially reproduce. Based on the old saw "A picture is worth a thousand words." This would take thousands of pictures. :roll:

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It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

in all honesty i didn't really expect an answer to that first half of stuff. sometimes my brain just goes off in a direction and i have to run with it to try to catch it and bring it back to where i started out at. also after i typed it i thought it made a little sense and decided to leave it in so i could read it later and go "oh yeah! that's what i was thinking about!"
also, far be it from me to claim that my random thought is but a simple question. the "simple" part of it was more along the lines of "if there are multiple universes what is the term used to name what they are all collected in (if that's the right way of looking at it)

you've got to keep in mind i'm just a regular college kid that likes jumping into the deep end of the pool sometimes ;)

The old plenum might not be too bad.

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

A collection of multiverses. Wow. I've never thought about that one.

Maybe you'd just call it big.

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h00!

The infiniteness of space won't give you more than one universe. As big as space is, that's still one universe. The only way to get more than one universe is to leave our space. How you get there, and what you'll find, those questions will have to be left to others and to sheer speculation, devoid of facts.

March 2004 Sky&Telescope has an article that discusses the multiverse theories.