Joe is essentially correct, in as much as that is what it looks like to a being anywhere in the universe. The internet has been down at work all day and I just can't type more than a sentence or two on a smartphone. I'm at home now, so here goes. The mistake people make is imagining the Big Bang as an explosion hurling matter outward into a greater volume of space. That's not a good analogy. The entire universe began expanding- all of space itself. There was no greater volume of space for the universe to expand into after the Big Bang, at least in the four dimensions we live in and are familiar with. 4 dimensions = X, Y, Z axes plus time. The entire universe began as a very small volume, a sub-atomic-sized volume, and quickly expanded into something close to the volume it is today. That rapid expansion is called Inflation. After Inflation, the expansion rate scaled back quite a bit, but was still accellerating and continues to accellerate today. A being living in a galaxy 13 billion light-years away looks in the direction of earth and sees the Milky Way as a dim, distant little galaxy hurtling away from him at a substantial percentage of the speed of light. It's the same thing we see when we look in the direction of that being's galaxy. We both surmise that the universe is rushing away from us, and we are at the center. That's the observational result of the fabric of space itself expanding, not galaxies rushing outward from a common center as if they were sitting on a big hand grenade when it went off. I'm sure there are others on this list who can explain it perhaps better than I. On Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 11:07 AM, Joe Bauman via Utah-Astronomy < utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
You are on that point as is everything else.
------------------------------ On Fri, Jan 16, 2015 6:50 AM MST Stephen Peterson wrote:
If the universe originated in the 'Big Bang', that is, expanding more or less uniformly from a single point wouldn't that point be the center? Steve Peterson, Hurricane _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club.
To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club.
To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".