Where are we in the universe?

[unipidity]

Erm. The center of a spherical universe? The center doesnt exist. In balloon-notation, where is the cetner of the surface of the balloon?

Anyway; the universe doesnt look closed to me. Flat at best.

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: unipidity
Erm. The center of a spherical universe? The center doesnt exist. In balloon-notation, where is the cetner of the surface of the balloon?

Anyway; the universe doesnt look closed to me. Flat at best.

The center of a sphere is not on the surface... by definition, it is a point equidistant from all points on the surface....

if you started in the center of a sphere and went foreward straight, you would never get back to the center. that was my point.

 

[alpha88]

Take whichever answer you perfer:

a) 100 billion light years due west from the center.

b) We don't know how big the universe is - we can't see to the edge. Everything on the horizon is accelerating away from us, so we're in the middle of what we can see, which is roughly irrelavent.

 

[Kakumba]

please remember that you are all figments of my imagination, and vice versa. Gotta Love hitchhikers guide.

anyways, im just gonna throw this into the ring: we are accelerating away from all the other stuff. or at least some of it. maybe we are chasing (read: going in the same direction as) some objects, but they are faster/ accelerating faster?

 

[imported_Seer]

Originally posted by: Kakumba
please remember that you are all figments of my imagination, and vice versa. Gotta Love hitchhikers guide.

anyways, im just gonna throw this into the ring: we are accelerating away from all the other stuff. or at least some of it. maybe we are chasing (read: going in the same direction as) some objects, but they are faster/ accelerating faster?

I think that if an object is x light years away from us, no matter what direction, that is accelerating away from us equally. We go back to the balloon universe for this idea. While from an arbitrary point, two objects may appear to be moving / accelerating in the same direction, if you redefine your center as one of these two objects, then suddenly we are still, and that object is moving away from us. see?

 

[Fallen Kell]

Originally posted by: stelleg151
AFAIK not many cosmologists think that the universe is infinite. If the universe was infinite the big bang theory wouldnt really work. I think the most popular conclusion is one that is very difficult if not impossible to wrap your head around completely (I think einstein may have been able to). This is that space time folds over such that it isnt dissimilar to being on the surface of a sphere, so that if you go in one direction for long enough you will end up where you started.

All I can remember from my intro to astronomy course a couple years ago

The problem is, the big bang theory doesn't entirely work already. There are too much energy still in existance for the theory to work properly, since we are still accelerating away from things. We "should" be slowing down not accelerating.

 

[WildHorse]

The OP question is like a zen koan, in that it's unanswerable.

 

[AStar617]

Your location in the universe

 

[Never Knows Best]

Nice^

 

[randay]

can someone go up to the front of the galaxy and ask the universe if we are there yet? and if we are not can you ask how much longer till we get there? because i have things to do...

 

[randay]

Question: If the universe is expanding how can it be infinite? can something that is infinite, become more infinite? Or are these two different theories.

 

[thescreensavers]

Some ware here

 

[thoro86]

Originally posted by: Eoman

I like this sites approximation on how the universe looks and our position in it.

You are here!

you can also zoom in to see more of the known structure up to the solar system level.

Very interesting!

 

[joshd]

Those that are confused about the centre of the universe/balloon thing, it is all down to understading the 4th dimension. The theory of the balloon is that we are a 3d universe, wrapped around the surface of a 4d balloon type thing. It is like the surface of a balloon, only a step higher, so if you go in one direction constantly, you will end up in the same place.

It is very hard for humans to understand the concept of tetraspace, (4d) as we are trapped within the limits of realmspace (3d). I just cannot comprehend this "perpendicular" direction to X, Y and Z.

More information on this theory for the 4th dimention can be found here:

http://tetraspace.alkaline.org/introduction.htm

No idea if that has been posted already, as I am new. By the way, I really really like the look of this "highly technical" forum.

 

[envy me]

Originally posted by: Eoman

I like this sites approximation on how the universe looks and our position in it.

You are here!

you can also zoom in to see more of the known structure up to the solar system level.

Umm.. maybe this is a dumb question but how is the visible universe 14 billion light years?? Doesn't that mean that it would take the light from the farthest star 14 billion years to reach us to see it??

 

[joshd]

precisely.

 

[randay]

yes, think of it this way, the oldest light we can observe is 14 billion years old. therefore we can assume that the universe is 14 billion years old. i think, or something, maybe, huh? what are we talking about again? dude, my hands can touch everything except themselves...