The Big Bang wasn’t an explosion Visualize it like this

The Big Bang wasn’t an explosion Visualize it like this

Where exactly did the Big Bang happen? Well, nowhere—and everywhere. As NASA’s Michelle Thaller explains, thinking of the origins of our universe as an explosion with a central hub is misleading.

« The Big Bang wasn’t an explosion of matter, it was an expansion of space itself, » she says. We don’t know how big the universe is, but the general consensus is that there is no edge to the universe, and no center either.

To visualize the Big Bang accurately, imagine an inflated balloon and pay attention just to the surface of it — « Pretend that there’s no such thing as inside or outside of the balloon, just the two-dimensional surface of the rubber. » We are living on the surface of that balloon, only able to shine a light in one direction or the other. All of it is expanding and every part of it is filled with galaxies—no matter where you are in the universe.