One of the most obvious things in our Universe may not exist at all

Einstein's "static" universe evolved into expanding space-time, where galaxies separate everywhere perhaps without an actual central point.

About a hundred years ago, scientists noticed something odd about Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. When he published it in 1915, the theory was quickly accepted around the world, but Einstein thought the universe was static, meaning it stayed the same size and shape forever.

Astronomers soon found evidence that didn’t fit. Looking at distant galaxies, they saw signs the universe was expanding. The farther away a galaxy was, the faster it seemed to move away. This discovery showed that Einstein’s equations could also describe a universe that was changing, not fixed. Physicists built new models based on his theory, and those models supported the idea of an expanding universe.

As Professor Rob Coyne from University of Rhode Island explained, “I know wrapping your head around the idea of an ever-expanding universe can feel daunting – and part of the challenge is overriding your natural intuition about how things work.”

So what does “expansion” mean here? On Earth, it usually means something is getting bigger. With the universe, it means everything is getting farther apart. Galaxies look like they are moving away from us, but they are also moving away from each other. It is not that galaxies are flying through space like fireworks. Instead, the space between them is stretching.

A common way to picture this is with a balloon. Imagine drawing dots on its surface. As you blow air into the balloon, the dots get farther apart. They don’t move on their own; the surface itself expands. In this analogy, the dots are galaxies and the balloon’s surface is the universe.

But the balloon example has limits. A balloon has both a surface and an inside. The universe is more like the surface only. That means asking “Where is the center of the universe?” is like asking “Where is the center of the balloon’s surface?” There isn’t one. You could travel in any direction and never reach a center.

Part of the difficulty comes from how the universe is described in mathematics. The balloon’s surface has two dimensions, while its inside has three. The universe has four dimensions: three of space and one of time. Space and time are woven together into what physicists call “space-time” fabric. This makes the universe behave in ways that don’t match our everyday intuition.

As the professor put it, “It’s hard to imagine something as big as the universe not having a center at all, but physics says that’s the reality.”

Even today, scientists are still trying to understand what drives this expansion. Many point to dark energy, but its nature remains unclear.

The question of the universe’s center shows how our natural instincts can mislead us. The answer scientists have found — everything expanding everywhere, all at once — gives us a glimpse of just how unusual the cosmos really is.

Source: The Conversation

This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

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Posted Sunday 10 May 2026 at 5:06 pm AEST (my time).

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