From which point is the universe expanding?

Answer 1

the center.
since it is expanding in all directions then the center is the start.
God bless,
gabe

Answer 2

THAT would probably be a super massive black hole which we don't have an exact location of yet. However perhaps in 1 or maybe 2 million years we actually might find it.

The center of the universe, a billion years before the big bang, was probably the site of a tiny compacted singularity which contained all matter in the universe. When it exploded (due to some unknown event, which i believe was a collision of parallel universes ) all measurable matter in our universe was thrown out in every direction.

The universe's expansion eventually slowed down due to pull from the black whole that remains from the big bang. That is to say eventually the universe will retract from its expansion. However in the meantime, the universe is still expanding (not all matter but simply empty space) and due to this all visible galaxies are being towed away from this center. Perhaps in the future we will have the ability to measure the movement, speed, distance, and age of neighboring galaxies. When sufficient data are collected we might be able to then log and track this information and redraw the direction these galaxies are moving and therefore pin-point the exact location of each galaxies starting point.

Answer 3

It does appear to be expanding from any point in space. The best analogy for this is thinking of the universe as the SURFACE of a balloon. Think of the stars and galaxies as existing on this surface. As you blow up the balloon (expanding it), all points move away from one another on the surface. This would make it appear that the stars and galaxies are all moving away from one another on the surface of this balloon. In this scenario, the expansion is coming from the point at the center of the balloon, but it is not a point on the surface with all the stars and galaxies. Thus, the point from which the universe is expanding does not even exist in our universe.

In reference to another answer, about galaxies colliding, this can still happen even as the universe expands from all perspectives. There are random trajectories in addition to the expansion. So things bump into each other from time to time. Why are there random trajectories? It would be expected that the big bang would leave everything evenly distributed, but that is not what happened. That is why we have galaxies and stars and that is why they move in random directions in addition to the expansion. Scientists are now studing the background radiation to look for the answer as to why everything was not evenly distributed from the big bang.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Think of an explosion of all the matter concentrated in one spot.
Such spot would be the origin of the Big Bang.
All the matter would be projected away from such origin.
Then all the matter will be contained in the surface (of a certain thickness) of an ever expanding sphere, similar to the skin of an inflating balloon.
That's why the distances between any galaxies are always increasing and they seem not to travel away from a common point.
Why can't we find the direction of the center of the sphere, origin of the Big Bang? (We might if we could measure the general curvature of the space around us).
Simply because not just the matter, but also all the radiations travel along the same (thick) skin of our hypothetical balloon.

Well, this is my way of visualizing it.
It helps, but it might be completely wrong!

Answer 5

The universe is expanding in all directions from any perspective. From any point in the universe, everything appears to be expanding almost directly away, because the velocity of an object's recession is proportional to its distance. In fact, the Copernican principle confirms that there is no "starting point" for the expansion of the universe.

Answer 6

Personally, I do not believe the Universe is expanding at all, but instead "rotates" as a gigantic object (eg. it may resemble the shape of a sphere for example !) on its axis. I have never agreed with the so-called "big bang" theory, because it does not fully explained what existed before the big bang. I mean, when you really think about it, something must have existed before this expansion of matter from a single point in time and space, but today's science cannot explain this and tries to avoid the very beginning of time. I find it much easier to except that our universe has always existed (and always will !) and rotates on its axis, but I must admit I have no idea what lays out-side our known universe as it is beyond my comprehension !

Answer 7

Other responders are correct in the notion that the universe is expanding in the 'rubber sheet' example detailed earlier.

But I think a more correct approch is, not that there is no center, rather that the whole thing is the center.

The Galactic Core is also deffinetly not the center of the Universe.

Answer 8

Actually master_furches got it correct. The universe expands in all directions from all points. Since you are standing in a different place that I your visible universe is different from mine. So indeed the universe is expanding from me in all directions.

Answer 9

If there were a single point, rather like a stone dropped in a puddle, the ripples going outwards from the centre, then all matter should be moving outward and away from each other. However we have colliding galaxies which appears contrary to a single big band.

A multiple bang perhaps? Or maybe the whole lot was always here and we are involved in a continual cycle of stars going nova, blowing up and re forming elsewhere. Perhaps we need to consider an eternity of time in all directions, forget linear time and contemplate infinity. anyway Im severely manic, and probably rambling so I will shut up now :)

Answer 10

Think of the universe as being on a sheet of rubber. As it is stretched everything moves away from everything else. There is no center.