by Ann » Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:31 am
Lordcat Darkstar wrote:seeing this video causes me to wonder. If everything in the visible universe originated from the big bang, than that means that there should be a center to the universe right? Would it be possible to maybe find hints or clues from this data that could point us in the direction of the center of the universe? Im sure we would need a lot more data and we would probably have to figure out where everything is now, but I think it would be interesting to be able to point at a part of the sky and say thats where it all began.
As Chris Peterson once pointed out, the only center of the universe is the precise moment of the Big Bang itself. This moment is the center of the universe because everything originated from it, but we can't see it, because it is located about 13.7 billion years ago.
So aren't there parts of the universe which are closer to the Big Bang than other parts? Sure, the distant galaxies that are spotted by our most powerful telescopes are closer to the Big Bang than we are, but only because we see them as they were in the past. "Now" these galaxies are as far away from the precise moment of the Big Bang as we are.
Isn't there a physical, three-dimensional part in our present-day universe which is closer to the Big Bang than other parts? Can't we point at a certain constellation or star in the sky and say that the Big Bang happened in this particular direction of the universe around us? No. Because the Big Bang wasn't a sort of "flame-thrower" that ejected its stuff into a pre-existing space. The entire universe, space itself, was created in the Big Bang, so no part of space is "closer" to the Big Bang than any other part of it. As a matter of fact the entire universe
is the Big Bang, when it is 13.7 billion years old and has cooled and expanded. That's a hard concept to wrap one's mind around, but it is nevertheless true.
See
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=25300.
Ann
[quote="Lordcat Darkstar"]seeing this video causes me to wonder. If everything in the visible universe originated from the big bang, than that means that there should be a center to the universe right? Would it be possible to maybe find hints or clues from this data that could point us in the direction of the center of the universe? Im sure we would need a lot more data and we would probably have to figure out where everything is now, but I think it would be interesting to be able to point at a part of the sky and say thats where it all began. :ssmile:[/quote]
As Chris Peterson once pointed out, the only center of the universe is the precise moment of the Big Bang itself. This moment is the center of the universe because everything originated from it, but we can't see it, because it is located about 13.7 billion years ago.
So aren't there parts of the universe which are closer to the Big Bang than other parts? Sure, the distant galaxies that are spotted by our most powerful telescopes are closer to the Big Bang than we are, but only because we see them as they were in the past. "Now" these galaxies are as far away from the precise moment of the Big Bang as we are.
Isn't there a physical, three-dimensional part in our present-day universe which is closer to the Big Bang than other parts? Can't we point at a certain constellation or star in the sky and say that the Big Bang happened in this particular direction of the universe around us? No. Because the Big Bang wasn't a sort of "flame-thrower" that ejected its stuff into a pre-existing space. The entire universe, space itself, was created in the Big Bang, so no part of space is "closer" to the Big Bang than any other part of it. As a matter of fact the entire universe [b][i]is[/i][/b] the Big Bang, when it is 13.7 billion years old and has cooled and expanded. That's a hard concept to wrap one's mind around, but it is nevertheless true.
See http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=25300.
Ann