Center of the universe

[roomby]

If the universe is expanding, do we know from where? Where is the centre of the universe? (I used to think it was me...)

[nwmadden]

Everything in the universe is expanding away from everything else in the universe. No matter where you make your observations from, galaxies in the distance are flying away from you. If you get a balloon and cover it's surface in dots, as you start blowing the balloon up - every dot starts getting further away from every other dot. Think of the surface of the balloon as the space/time representing our universe. So thinking in these terms make the question of where the centre of the universe was at the beginning less important. Just realize the universe was on a different scale back then. It has to be the most interesting topic to think about to me, and I'm beginning to wish I'd spent the last 10 years in Astrophysics instead of stupid old I.T. C'est la vie!

[Squirrel]

Brilliant - next time I have a thousand-word essay due in I will simply explain that, as a part of the Universe, my essay is being drawn irretrievably away from all other matter.

[sft42]

Yes nwmadden but the point still remains that if you assume the universe to be spherical (as it must be if wevery point is expanding at an equal rate from every other point) then the centre must still be at the same place?

And this make the centre of the universe MUCH more important as finding the centre fo the universe will unlock the secrets of the creation of all life and metter that (as we know it anyway) exists.

I hope I am not being overly presumptious when I say that what the question was about....so although you are right that everything has expanded has anyone any concept from where it all came? The Big Bang site?

[roomby]

Thanks all of you for your answers. Nwmadden, the balloon explanation is great, but you gloss over the issue of the centre. As sft42 points out, the centre could/should be important. Not sure that it will provide the answers you suggest, sf, but I often wonder why no one seems to be interested in where it all began. Perhaps we could learn something about the big bang from discovering where it happened? I'd just like to know, when I'm looking up at the night sky, whether I'm looking towards the centre or out towards where we're going.

[anthomson]

I don't think you should try to conceptualise the universe using 3D geometry, it isn't a sphere and the big bang wasn't an explosion in the conventional sense. The mass in the universe causes it to warp time-space in such a way that if you shine a torch in to space the light would eventually get back to the torch (assuming it didn't hit anything on the way of course ). Whichever way you look the universe it looks the same - a good example being the 3K background radiation ( the 'light' from the big bang ). Although lumpy this is pretty much consistant regardless of where you are looking from or which direction you are looking in. We are not a result of the big-bang - we are part of it.

[anthomson]

.... I guess these could mean that you are the centre of the universe Roomby ( it just that everything else in the universe probably is as well ;-)

[tracymort]

i have always thought that we could never know/understand everything while we have 3 dimensional brains. there god knows how many dimensions in the universe.

[Andromeda]

Because of the curved nature of space-time the centre is actually the time it exploded.

Andy