Many years ago, people were sure that the Earth is flat and that the stars, the Sun, and other space objects revolve around it. The first person to theoretically prove that our planet is round was the Italian physicist Galileo Galilei. Then, in the 1500s, the Spanish navigator Ferdinand Magellan made the very first circumnavigation in historyand proved it in practice. Then it became clear that the Earth cannot be the center of the Universe, just like the Sun and even the Milky Way galaxy. If space is expanding, there must be a place where this expansion originates from? In fact, the center of the Universe is much closer to you than it seems. It will sound too strange, unexpected and even to some extent pleasant, but the center of the Universe is you.
The center of the Universe is every person living on Earth
Contents
- 1 Ancient concept of the Universe
- 2 Proof of the expansion of the Universe
- 3 How the Universe becomes larger
- 4 Where is the center of the Universe
Ancient concept of the Universe
Once upon a time, scientists believed that the Universe has a center, and tried to find this point. After all, every object has a central place: a planet has a core, a city has a central square, and so on – there are many possible examples. According to this logic, the Universe should also have a central point.
Gerard Dou's painting “The Astronomer”. Source: artchive.ru
Scientists were sure that the Earth was at the center of everything. Then there was an assumption that the Sun was the central point in space. But the more astronomers learned about the world, the clearer it became that there was no center to the Universe.
Proof of the expansion of the Universe
The scientific discoveries of Edwin Hubble played a key role in understanding that space has no center. Incidentally, the legendary Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was named after him. It was launched into space on April 24, 1990 and, despite numerous breakdowns, is still working.
The Hubble Space Telescope. Image: nasa.gov
In the 1920s, an American astrophysicist discovered that some nebulae that were considered part of the Milky Way were separate galaxies. After that, science learned about the existence of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds, which were of great interest to scientists. Edwin Hubble proved that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies in the Universe.
Scientists believe that the visible Universe contains from 100 billion to 200 billion galaxies. Image: maglipogoda.ru
In 1929, Hubble's law appeared.It states that the farther away galaxies are from us, the faster they move away from us. After this, it became clear that the Universe does not have a constant size, but is expanding.
Read also: What happened when the Hubble telescope looked into space for 100 hours
How the Universe is getting bigger
You might think that the center of the Universe is where the Big Bang happened. But scientists are sure that there is no specific location for this incident – the explosion occurred “everywhere” at the same time, and since then space has been constantly getting wider.
Unfortunately, we have little idea of how and why the Big Bang occurred. Image: estestvoznanye.ru
To understand how the Universe expands, you can imagine a balloon. On its surface there are points that represent galaxies, stars, planets and anything else. This balloon gradually expands and all the points move away from each other. But not a single point (if you look from the side!) will be the center of expansion.
Related article: An unusual discovery has proven that the Universe is expanding differently than we thought
Where is the center of the Universe
But if the Universe has no center, then where are we? And here comes the amazing realization: each of us, wherever we are, is the center of our own observable Universe. This is because the light from the most distant objects in the Universe comes to us from all directions at equal distances. Thus, from the observer's point of view, he appears to be at the center of what he can see and study.
Right now, you are the center of the Universe for yourself. Image: bogatyr.club
For a better understanding, you can imagine the same balloon. You can imagine yourself at any point on its surface. Regardless of where this point is, all other points will move away from it. Therefore, from the point of view of this point, it will seem that it is at the center of this process. But any other point on this ball, wherever it is, will see the same thing – it will also be at the center of its Universe.
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If each of us is the center of our own Universe, you can think about how strange and mysterious our world is. Scientists are increasingly discussing amazing theories about the reality around us. One of the hypotheses claims that our Universe may be a complex simulation. Perhaps our place in the Universe is just part of a virtual world created by artificial intelligence. Sounds scary, doesn't it?