In which direction in the sky did the big bang take place 13.8 billion years ago? (continued)
Alfred Vouk
Hubbards, Nova Scotia, Canada
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My take on this question is: imagine your body (immortal, of course) as a particle that originated in the soup of the big bang 13.8 billion years ago.
As the universe expands, it should be immediately obvious that there could be no direction one could look in the sky for the origin, as our immortal body is still inside this greatly expanded 鈥� and still expanding 鈥� soup, which now consists of the planets, stars and galaxies that surround us.
Martin Buote
Fall River, Massachusetts, US
This supposes an observer outside the space of the big bang. But we are within this space. When we observe something at a distance of, say, 10 billion light years, we are seeing the 鈥渘ow鈥� of that thing 10 billion years ago, not a glimpse of our own history.
Ten billion years back in our own history would show a similar young universe where we stand now. Thus, our section of the cosmos was in the big bang billions of years ago and that big bang keeps expanding as if it were the surface of a balloon encompassing the entire universe.
Instead of being propelled out of the big bang, the big bang is receding from us in all directions, leaving behind the bits and pieces that coalesce into the quarks and so on that form our reality.
To put it another way, the possibility of employing the concepts of frame of reference, location and coordinates only came into existence within the big bang with the creation of space. Thus, the question of the direction from our present location to the site of the big bang is nonsensical. Our existential history is embedded in the big bang.
Philippe Martin
Paris, France
In a previous response, Stan Williams referred to a quote on the wall of a church in Aberdeenshire, UK: 鈥淭he universe is a circle whose circumference is nowhere and whose centre is everywhere.鈥�
No need to visit this church, however, as this is simply a version of a quote from French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal鈥檚 Thoughts.
To answer this question 鈥� or ask a new one 鈥� email lastword@newscientist.com.
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