Expert: Ed - 8/9/2006

Question
"Hi
The hubble has brougth back some amazing images close to the early universe.

The question is this:

Which direction is the hubble looking to see these early images. or in other words where do scientists think the center of the universe is, I am assuming that if you look in one direction there will be much less no evidence of the the early universe, or stay systems will be moving in a particular direction ....surely some kind of trig extrapulation will or could give an idea of where the BB took place in the universe. I guess the distance are so great that is might not be possible to do this?!

Kind regards
Andrew

Answer
Andrew,
I think this is a good question.  I had a hard time getting to understand this, myself.

Basically, the Big Bang happened in ALL directions.  It WAS the entire universe.  We can look toward the center of our own little galaxy, in the constellation Sagittarius, but you can look in ANY direction and you'll be looking at the site of the Big Bang.

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/nocenter.html
http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q1164.html

I hope this helps answer your question.  Fool around with the top link I posted, to Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial.  He has lots of good stuff there.

Keep Looking Up!
--Ed