The Universe is expanding, but from what point in space ?

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Vinnie C

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are we at the approximate centre of the expansion, going by what i have seen/read, the universe is expanding from our point of view, that would make our locality the start point ?
Or, is it possible to find or calculate the start point, like from where the big bang happened
if the universe is not infinite then it must have a centre.
so all the matter in the universe was created at the instant of the big bang, maybe it wasn't, maybe it is still being created from the point of the big bang.
 
HaHa no.

The problem is that galaxies swirl in spirals, and that these gravitational forces swing large amounts of material in different directions... Don't think for one moment, that EVERYTHING is flying outwards from the hub of the Big-Bang, for it certainly isn't. Check out the agreed data for any number of stars, and you will see that they are either approaching us, or receeding from us. Think more of a given molecule of water in a pond - any given astral body can take a path which, in the over-view, is far from linear.
 
Scientists are systematically looking into a variety of methods for measuring distances. They are using Cepheids in a large sample to tie into five or six "secondary methods."

One such secondary method relates the total luminosity of a galaxy to the rate at which the galaxy is spinning, the Tully-Fisher relation.

Another secondary method makes use of a special class of exploding star known as a type Ia supernova. These secondary distance indicators are needed to look deeper into the Universe to get a more representative rate for the expansion of space (the gravitational fields of nearby clusters may yield an inaccurate value because the expansion rate may be affected by the local motion of galaxies). [1]
 
To assume there is a center, or that every thing is expanding from everything else, usually implies the Big Bang theory.

A quote from another member:

"No explanations exist for the Big Bang.
It is an hypothesis.
It is not scientific because it is not susceptible to investigation.
It is almost certainly wrong.
For example it violates the principle of the conservation of energy
The idea of an expanding Universe rests on the interpretation of the red shift of light. Many know that anomalies exist. ie galaxies that are quite close together have different red shifts..
So...does red shift really represent expansion?"

As for me, this theory can be can be rearranged, so that the entire universe was always the same size... and the material inside of it is getting smaller. Creating the 'illusion' of expansion for us.

The interpretation of the red shift is the problem here.
 
The expansion in in multidimensional space. As we can only detect four of the dimension there is no way of detecting the centre of expansion. It's like asking an ant where the centre of the Earth is.
 
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