The Universe. How big is it? Does it have a center? Does it have an edge? Is it getting
bigger, and if so, why?
Well, we know that there are two different meanings for "universe" - first, the "observable
universe" is everything that we've been able to see, or observe, thus far. And second,
"The Universe" (or "the whole universe") means everything that exists or has existed, or
will exist.
More specifically, the observable universe is the region of space visible to us from
earth. And since The Universe is only about 13.8 billion years old and light takes time
to travel through space, then regardless of what direction we look, we see light that's
been traveling (at most) 13.8 billion years. So it's logical to think that the observable
universe must then be 2*13.77 = 27.5 billion light years across - but it's not. That's
because over time, space has been expanding, so the distant objects that gave off that
light 13.8 billion years ago have since moved even farther away from us. Today, those distant
objects are a bit more than 46 billion light years away. Multiply times two and you get
93 billion light years: the diameter of the observable universe.
To give you a sense of scale, the size of the earth within the observable universe is
roughly equivalent to the size of a virus within the solar system - although that doesn't
help much because we can't really appreciate the incomprehensible smallness of a virus
nor the bewildering bigness of the solar system, either.
So let's just say that the observable universe is stupendously big. But The Whole Universe,
as far as we can tell, is a lot bigger - space is most likely infinite! Or at least it doesn't
have an edge, though the difference between those is another story unto itself.
Now, what about the center of the universe? Well the observable universe has a center
- Us! We're at the center of the observable universe because the observable universe is
just the region of space visible from earth, and kind of like how the view from a very
tall tower is a circle centered on the tower, the piece of space we can see from here is
naturally centered here. In fact, if you want to be more precise, EACH ONE OF US is the
center of our OWN observable universe.
But that doesn't mean we're at the center of The Whole Universe, just like the tower
isn't the center of the world - it's the center of the piece of the world that it can see
- up to the horizon. But just because you can't see beyond the horizon doesn't mean
there's nothing there.
And so it is with the observable universe. Looking up at the sky, we see light light
that's at most 13.8 billion years old and coming from stuff that's now 46 billion light
years away. Anything farther is "beyond the horizon". But each second, we see new, even
older light coming from slightly farther away (one light-second farther, to be precise),
and so our view of the cosmos is literally getting bigger all the time - all we have
to do is wait and watch as the universe ages and light from more distant places has the
time to get to us.
So here we are, sitting at the center of our observable piece of the Whole Universe.
How big is the universe? Well, the observable universe is currently 93 billion light years
across. The Whole Universe is probably infinite. Does the universe have an edge? The observable
does (it's 46 billion light years away in any direction), and The Whole Universe has
a temporal edge (or what we call a beginning) but almost certainly not a spatial one.
Does the universe have a center? Again, the observable universe does: YOU! The Universe
as a whole? Almost certainly not. And is the universe getting bigger? Yes - space
is expanding, which makes both the observable universe and the whole universe bigger - plus,
over time, we see older and older light coming from farther and farther away, so our observable
universe gets bigger that way, too.
And that, in a nutshell, is our view from the tower. You are the center of the universe.
And so am I. And so is everyone else. And so is no one.
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