How can we see the center of *** universe?

colinuk

colinuk

colinuk

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Odd question in the office..

If we aim a telescope at the center of the universe and we see what has been going on from 80000 million years ago [give or take a week] and we all exploded into this space at the same time in the big bang.

Light being the fastest thing going, how can we be 80000 million years ahead of the light we are now seeing?

Does that make sense?

Colin - baffled at 4:30pm on a thursday lol...
 
colinuk said:
If the big bang theory is correct, then there must be a center, cant have a big bang without a starting point can you?
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That's how I would see the situation too. But I never studied Astro-Physics.

We're not moving at the speed of light from the centre of the universe (if there is one, let's assume for the moment there is) so the time it takes for the light to reach us is a lot shorter then the time since the big bang. We would be seeing a time x years ago where x is the amount of light years between us and the centre.

Basically light left whatever was there x years ago and has been travelling since then to eventually reach us now. Seeing as how we are travelling away from the centre of the universe (the big bang origin) at sub light speeds we won't actually see the big bang occurring or anything like that.
 
If you aimed a telescope at the point the big bang occurred at you wouldn't be seeing what happened at the beginning. You'd be seeing light that was created at this point or passed this point towards you at a time equivalent to the distance between you and it measured in light years.

For example, if the sun was where the big bang occurred, you'd be seeing light that was created about 8 minutes ago, not light which has been lurking there just waiting for you to look at it since the big bang.

As in another post, this is an assumption and not to be taken as fact. More importantly, if anyone could point me to the centre of the universe I'd like to send a young kid there, approximate age of 4, carries a loud whistle and is currently outside my building.
 
But, if we all started at the same time, at the same point, from the big bang. Speed of light being the fastest speed possable [so they say] how can we see things so far back in time, surely it should have gone past us by now and when we look back, we should see nothing at all but black.

Unless the light from the objects moving away from us is what we are seeing? then i guess that is possable.... is it?

I dont know, and ive been thinking abotu this for so long, even my feet hurt!
 
colinuk said:
But, if we all started at the same time, at the same point, from the big bang. Speed of light being the fastest speed possable [so they say] how can we see things so far back in time, surely it should have gone past us by now and when we look back, we should see nothing at all but black.

Unless the light from the objects moving away from us is what we are seeing? then i guess that is possable.... is it?

I dont know, and ive been thinking abotu this for so long, even my feet hurt!
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When we look back we wouldn't see black, we would see the other side of the expanding universe. Imagine yourself in a football that is slowly expanding. If you look from one point on the circumference to the middle of the ball you'll see the other side behind it.

Or perhaps there is stuff at the centre of the universe as well that just got left behind in the wake of everything expanding out.
 
if the big bang was correct then there is no center - the universe expanding is the expansion of space - there is no center and the big bang did not occur at a particular place in the universe - it happened everywhere!

if the current theory is correct.
 
How can you have a big bang without a centre?????

The bang has to come from somewhere and start from somewhere.

Or - are you saying its like a linked mine field? one goes up and the whole field goes with it, now that throws new light on it.... o.O i can feel my toes twitching lol..

that would explain why there is no centre too... to many bangs.

one other question.

why did the forum filter take the word 'the' and *** it out? lol...
 
colinuk said:
But, if we all started at the same time, at the same point, from the big bang. Speed of light being the fastest speed possable [so they say] how can we see things so far back in time, surely it should have gone past us by now and when we look back, we should see nothing at all but black.

Unless the light from the objects moving away from us is what we are seeing? then i guess that is possable.... is it?

I dont know, and ive been thinking abotu this for so long, even my feet hurt!
Click to expand...


Light is constantly being absorbed and created. It's not just been the same few rays bouncing around for all time. Hence we can see light coming from pretty much any direction if we look far enough (there's usually something there).
 
james.miller said:
wait....doesnt that mean that if you look towards the center but only a certain distance, wouldnt you then be looking at earth a few hundered thousand years ago?

eek
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No, because the earth is travelling slower then the speed of the, the light that comes out of it 100,000 years ago was already coming in this direction at a speed greater then us so unless we learn to go faster then the speed of light we'll never catch up with it.
 
according to theory:

the big bang occurred at a tiny point - outside of this point there was nothing, not even 'space' or time or the universe. In that instant the universe was created - time and space was created - so the big bang was not at the center of the universe - it IS the universe - there is no center and if there was a central point where the expansion is moving out from there would be nothing to see.

i'm not sure about the theory myself but its better than 'god did it' ;)
 
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