Universal Expansion...stupid question.

[foghorn67]

If everything is accelerating away from each other...are there any conjectures to where the center of everything is?

 

[destrekor]

If everything is accelerating away from each other...are there any conjectures to where the center of everything is?

None that I am aware of - we don't even know the shape, and we can really only see everything in a sphere with a radius of about 14 billion light years.

 

[Cattlegod]

the center is everywhere. no matter where you stand, you appear to be at the center.

 

[Crono]

There is no center.

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/nocenter.html

 

[foghorn67]

There is no center.

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/nocenter.html

fuck me that is cool.

 

[Rastus]

Is there a spoon at the center?

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Maybe. I'll be back in a bit.

 

[nanette1985]

It's me. I'm the center of everything. Sorry.

 

[BUTCH1]

I wonder if, billions of years from now the universe stops expanding then collapses back onto itself and the "big bang" repeats itself and everything including time itself starts over again, that would be nice, 1972 was a good year for me, I'd like to do it again in 70 billion years...

 

[sao123]

I wonder if, billions of years from now the universe stops expanding then collapses back onto itself and the "big bang" repeats itself and everything including time itself starts over again, that would be nice, 1972 was a good year for me, I'd like to do it again in 70 billion years...

expansion is accellerating, not slowing. this will never happen

 

[3chordcharlie]

expansion is accellerating, not slowing. this will never happen

That's this week... it's likely that damage caused by the Warp 5 engines will reverse this trend.

If not those, then the Warp 9 ones for certain.

 

[Beev]

Do you mean the center of our infinitely expanding universe, or the center of the area between all of the multiverses? :awe:

 

[BUTCH1]

expansion is accellerating, not slowing. this will never happen

True, but we would have no way to know what part of the "cycle" we are in, that is if there is a "cycle" at all..

 

[Macamus Prime]

If everything is accelerating away from each other...are there any conjectures to where the center of everything is?

The center of the universe is Fox News; because it's the biggest gapping empty space of nothing, known to man and everyone is interested in it.

 

[SlowSpyder]

The center of the universe is Fox News; because it's the biggest gapping empty space of nothing, known to man and everyone is interested in it.

Let's see what we have here...

A dumb jab at Fox News in a thread that has nothing to do with news or politics.

A user name that incorporates an Apple product name in to it.

An avatar that has an Apple logo (and not even the cool multi colored one from the 80's) in it.

And I'll take a guess that you post here from a coffee shop.


All the evidence points to a strong possibility that you are a douchebag hipster.

 

[Chriscross3234]

Someone posted a lecture that covered this question, but I can't find it. It said that due to the nature of the expansion of the universe, everywhere is the center of the universe or nowhere is the center of the universe.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Let's see what we have here...

A dumb jab at Fox News in a thread that has nothing to do with news or politics.

A user name that incorporates an Apple product name in to it.

An avatar that has an Apple logo (and not even the cool multi colored one from the 80's) in it.

And I'll take a guess that you post here from a coffee shop.


All the evidence points to a strong possibility that you are a douchebag hipster.

hahahhaa

 

[Macamus Prime]

All the evidence points to a strong possibility that you are a douchebag hipster.

You forgot the part where I am prone to making comments about how I am banging your mom.

On a serious note, it's impossible to tell. Since within our own galaxy we see light from stars that are long dead. The span and space is SO huge in the universe, there is no way to really pin point where the center is.

So, I took the stupid approach,.... oh, and, I'm banging your mom.

 

[Macamus Prime]

Futher more, what is to say there is ONE central point?

What if there were MANY clumps of mass, and the Big Bang happened (thus the outward acceleration) and these many clumps of mass burst as well (creating galaxies) and created a chain reaction that may still be going on to this "day".

 

[Beev]

I fucking love this thread (flaming aside). Conversations about this topic interest me a lot.

We are limited by the fact that the known universe is an estimated 14 billion years old, so we can only see light, just now, from objects up to ~14 billion light years away. Anything further than that hasn't had enough time for its' light to reach us yet. Isn't that fascinating? We could very well be on the hypothetical "edge" of our own universe, and it's very likely that another civilization like ours is simply out of our (and their) reach, so we don't know about each other yet.

 

[Macamus Prime]

I fucking love this thread (flaming aside). Conversations about this topic interest me a lot.

We are limited by the fact that the known universe is an estimated 14 billion years old, so we can only see light, just now, from objects up to ~14 billion light years away. Anything further than that hasn't had enough time for its' light to reach us yet. Isn't that fascinating? We could very well be on the hypothetical "edge" of our own universe, and it's very likely that another civilization like ours is simply out of our (and their) reach, so we don't know about each other yet.

On top of it, lets say this light DOES reach us and we see the source/object it is bouncing off/from of (or, rather did) - what about the countless other sources that didn't make it due to black holes?

And, black holes aren't really holes that lead to other dimesions; they are matter that is SO dense, it's pull is affecting the flow of light, thus bending/distorting and even destroying it.

We are a grain of sand on an ant that is crawling over a rock, on a mountain on a planet that is one of trillions in a galaxy, with in a solar system, with in a universe. I am surprised we even register on ANYTHING of importance in the "grand scheme" of things.

 

[darkxshade]

I wonder if, billions of years from now the universe stops expanding then collapses back onto itself and the "big bang" repeats itself and everything including time itself starts over again, that would be nice, 1972 was a good year for me, I'd like to do it again in 70 billion years...

Watched K-Pax lately?

 

[Chriscross3234]

Found the lecture, well worth the time to watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo

 

[Beev]

And, black holes aren't really holes that lead to other dimesions; they are matter that is SO dense, it's pull is affecting the flow of light, thus bending/distorting and even destroying it.

A fun fact about black holes to think about is that "time" actually slows as you approach one. If a person was able to fly to the horizon of a black hole and then had the thrust to get away from it thousands or even millions of years would have passed even though the person was only at the black hole for a day or two.

Another Fun Fact: The faster you go the slower time is for you, and that thought makes me all tingly.

 

[darkxshade]

Found the lecture, well worth the time to watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo

Man I just spent the hour listening to that, what an awesome lecture, I wish there were more of these on youtube than normal.