Does the universe have a center?

Unlike what we often hear in sci-fi movies, the universe doesn't actually have a center. At least that's what scientists claim based on humanity's current understanding of the universe.

According to the "Big Bang Theory", the universe formed through an explosion from an infinite point with infinite mass called a singularity. You've probably heard the term "singularity" before, especially after the discovery of Sagittarius A* - a black hole located in our Milky Way.

The center of a black hole is called a singularity. However, what we often confuse when thinking about the Big Bang is that it resembles an ordinary explosion, starting from a single point, like a bomb. This big bang was different in that it triggered the expansion of the fabric of space-time, and with it the entire universe. And everything is simultaneously expanding, moving away from everything else, by the same exponential rate.

The 'observable universe' is something a little different.

This complex concept can best be illustrated by the famous 'bubble analogy', first put forward by the British astronomer Arthur Eddington in his 1933 book 'The Expanding Universe'. In a nutshell, if you draw a series of dots on the surface of a bubble and make it explode, the dots will move away from each other in the same way that galaxies in the universe. Note that galaxies are not expanding, because they are bound by the law of gravity within their own galaxy.

Not even Sherlock Holmes can find the center of the universe

When looking into space with a telescope, everything seems to be the same no matter where we point the lens. According to the American Astronomical Union, galaxies visible from Earth appear to be scattered at equal distances, suggesting that in the universe there is no real direction, or even a center. heart. This is in perfect agreement with the 'Principle of Cosmology', which states that the universe is both homogeneous (no particular place), and isotropic (no particular direction).

However, the 'observable universe' is something a little different. It is defined as the region of space we can see from Earth - our observation position. It is the light from all cosmic objects that have been traveling through space since the Big Bang, about 13.8 billion years ago.

Sound uses higher or lower wavelengths to tell us it is approaching or going away (like an ambulance siren). Light is similar, but uses color to tell us that information. According to Forbes, longer wavelengths equate to lower frequencies and energies, visible under red. Shorter wavelengths are equivalent to higher frequencies and energies, visible under blue. Therefore objects that emit blue light may be located closer to Earth than objects that emit red light.

The universe we observe is based entirely on our perspective. Observing the universe from a planet millions of light-years away would show you an observable universe far different from today, because the entire frame of reference would change. No matter how important we humans think we are, the Earth is not the center of the universe at all, because the universe has no center!