Shouldn't there be a Center of the Universe?

Question

According to some science books, astronomers have discovered that to this day, all space matter is still moving farther and farther away, (supposedly after the Big Bang), effectively expanding the universe. From that knowledge, can't scientists pinpoint the center of the universe? Or at least, pinpoint the likely direction of where said center is?

Answer 1

Theoretically possible, but you would need 6 points to map out the edges of the universe. However, I do not know if our telescopes can see the edges, since the universe expands at the speed of light. So perhaps not physically possible, unless you look at something like the background radiation, etc.

Answer 2

The Big Bang is often described as a tiny bit of matter, but that's an oversimplification. If the Big Bang occurred in a specific point in space, spewing galaxies in all directions, then we would expect our galaxy to be one of many galaxies sitting on an expanding shell of galaxies, with the center of that shell being the point of the "Bang." This, however, is not what we see, and not what the BB predicts.

If we were on a shell of galaxies, we would see many galaxies when we looked in directions along the shell, and few galaxies when we looked perpendicular to (up out of or down into) the shell. Moreover, distances and redshifts in such a scenario would depend on the direction we were looking. As we looked tangent to the shell, we would see many nearby galaxies with small redshifts. As we looked down into the shell, we would see more distant galaxies with higher redshifts. (Up out of the shell we would see only empty space.) This is not what we see. Galaxies, distant and nearby, are evenly distributed all around us. The number of galaxies and their redshifts are completely independant of which direction we look (we say that they are "homogeneous"), and that homogeneous distribution is also "isotropic," meaning that no matter where in the univerese you were, you would see exactly the same average distribution of galaxies and redshifts.

No, that little point of matter that was the Big Bang was not a little point of stuff inside an empty universe. It was, in fact, the entire observable universe. There was no "outside" of that point into which it could explode. In fact, the Big bang was not an explosion at all; it was simply the very hot state of the early universe. Distances between objects were much shorter back then, but the universe was still homogeneous and isotropic. Wherever you were in the early universe, you would see a homogeneous, even, distribution of matter and energy around you. There was no empty "space" outside of this point of matter into which it could expand, for all of space was already there, in that little "point." The expansion of the universe is manifested only in the stretching of space itself, perpetually increasing distances between distant objects, not in some "empty space" gradually getting filled as matter streams into it. These distances expand in all directions equally, and so cannot be traced back to a single point. If you try to do this, you find that the single point is your telescope, no matter where in the universe you observe from. After all, the "point" in question was all there was of space: the entire observable universe. The Big Bang happened everywhere. It happened right where you are sitting, where the Andreomeda galaxy is now, and in the most distant reaches of the universe. It's just that the reaches of the universe were not quite as distant those many billions of years ago.

Answer 3

They DID!.......theoretically, as was well covered by the answer "Mona Lisa 3" gave to the question about the "big bang", (She's brilliant-whoever she is!) There's only one catch, it's ALL theoretical! It's ALL mathmatical jargon and theories and they don't even agree with themselves, not even in the hundreds of millions of light year ballpark. So you would do well not to put all your eggs in the basket of one mathmatical "whiz" (eggheads). Even "Nobel prize -winning theorists " don't even agree with each other. Didn't that "Beautiful Minds" guy win some sort of prize for his theory - still, in everyday life -he was (relativitally speaking) way off the deep end. I heard that Einstein also thought everything should cost five bucks -new house, or box o' "Tic-Tacs".
The truth is, NOBODY'S been there, nobody can prove ANY of this stuff. If you go to school and tell 'em you believe that "God cerated it all out of nothing -'cept for Adam (He used some dust)" they'd laugh you right out of the classroom, heck, the whole town for that matter as being UN-scientific. But your theory would be no less scientifically valid than theirs. Fact is: nobody was there, and you just have to take someone elses word (theoies) for it, but they weren't there either.
But if you're looking for the majority opinion, I'll go for Paris, France . Most of the dear French still act like it's still the center of the universe, even though the rest of the world left them far behind, years ago. But - for that matter- we can't prove it's NOT either.
But if you want to know where it's GONNA be, check out the 21st and 22nd chapter of Revelations where it describes the Heavenly City (New Jarusalem) which is going to DESCEND to the earth. It's gonna be appx. 2300 kilometers (or 1500 miles) Wide, long AND high. And if you don't think that's gonna b the "center of the univese", even when God has decided to make His throne there, that's prefectly ok with me, you can choose some other place in the universe. It's just that you'll get awfully tired and awfully hungry and awfully old before you get there, even if it's close to Pluto. Or, unless these mathmatical figurer-outers have clued you in on someting about space travel that they didn't tell the rest of us! Still, it's a good queston. --Sionarra

PS. If there WAS a "big bang", what happened to the "BIG ECHO"?

Answer 4

Thene right?
Well, I am not an astronomer, actually i am a student, but i have read a few theories on the Big Bang, it is a very logical theory, but doesn't it raise more question?
But getting back to your query, shouldn't there be a centre of the universe (cotu)?
Yes there is a cotu, but our technology is such that we still can't even see the direction we are expanding. Even though you have seen pictures which are taken lets say 100 million light years away from Earth, those pictures is actually what that place looked like 40-100 years ago because we CANT KEEP UP WITH THE SPEED OF LIGHT.
Albert Einstein;s formula E=MC2 is very important to know more about the cotu, and based on my predictions, it could be a few decades more before your question can be answered.

(Sorry if there are any factual errors, i included my thoughts in it too!)

Answer 5

no. It seems you think space matter is moving away from the center, which it is, but it is also moving away from every other place in the universe so which place is the center?

Everything is moving away from Earth, but if you could go to another place, say 200 million light years away, you would find that, there also, everything is moving away from there.

You should do a little reading of cosmotology.

Answer 6

There doesn't need to be a center. Consider the universe as the surface of a globe.... only the surface not the middle. Now, pick a center. All points are equal if you think about it.

Answer 7

Regardless of where I go in the universe, if I look about me, all the matter is moving away from me. So I think that its safe to conclude that; "I am, the center of the universe.... and I'm cute
too."

Answer 8

Not really. You're assuming a linearity that simply isn't there. If the Universe (and the 'Big Bang') *was* perfectly linear, it would have never 'clumped up' into stars, galaxies, groups (of galaxies), and clusters (of groups) and would probably be nothing more than a thin, flat, uniformly distributed gas.


Doug

Answer 9

If it was straight, yes....

But time&space is curved, meaning that extend a curved line and the ends will eventually touch one another... making the centre any given point on that line.

Laimmans terms: If we dont know where the edge of the universe is how will you know where the centre is?

I live in Africa... for me the centre of the map is Africa.
If you live in America, the centre of the map is America.

So our solar system must be the centre... Seeing the whole of creation was sculpted in such a manner to protect life on our planet, according to the Scripture.

Answer 10

there is no center because:

1) in spite of the parts of world are going further and further but it is not from a specified origin and there are so many origins.

2)the world and the space is unlimited so there is no center in it.