Chapter 21: The Center of The Universe

“I’m sorry,” I said. “But I don’t know who you are either.” “You’ve heard of the Big Bang, of course,” said Lemaître. “Yes,” I said. “I think most knowledgeable people have heard of it. “And does anyone who has read Prologue 2, And God Said: “Let There Be Light! Dammit!” Added the metanovel. “And you know about the cosmic background microwave radiation?” Lemaître asked. “Well, I know a little bit,” I answered. “I know that when you point a radio telescope to the sky you see the same radiation in every direction.” “That’s approximately correct,” said Lemaître. “We see a thermal black body spectrum at temperature 2.725 Kelvin, which peaks at the microwave frequency of 160.2 GHz, correspond­ ing to a 1.873 mm wavelength.” “I understand all of those words,” I said, “And I read the article you’re quoting in the Wiki­ pedia. But the importance is beyond me.” “That’s alright,” said Lemaître. “What’s important is that it’s a very faint glow which is the same in all directions.” “I understand that,” I said. “Penzias and Wilson discovered it,” Lemaître added. “They got a Nobel Prize for their work.” “I didn’t know that, either,” I said. “They did,” said Lemaître. “And it was important confirming evidence for the Big Bang. Do you understand why?” “No,” I said. “I knew there was a connection, but I’m not sure what it was.” Actually I did know the connection. The Wikipedia articles that I had read, research­ ing this chapter, had explained it. But dialog was better than a lecture would have been. “Both boring,” said my inner critic. “You remember that the further out in space an object is, the longer it must have taken for its photons to get to you?” Asked Penzias. “Yes,” I said. “So when you look far out in space you’re actually looking back in time.” “Yes,” I said. “And I remember that the red-shift tells us how far away an object is, so we know how long ago it emitted its light.” “That’s correct. The oldest confirmed galaxy, UDFj-39546284, is on the order of 13.2 billion light-years away—or 13.2 billion years in the past. More than billion years after the Big Bang. The background radiation is even older than that,” said Penzias. “The background radiation comes from the furthest detectable boundary of our uni­ verse,” said Wilson. Self-Referential Metanovel Writing for Dmmies “And since the boundary is the same in every direction, it follows that we cannot be nearer any part of the boundary than any other,” said Lemaître. I thought about that for a while. “That makes sense,” I said finally. “If the Big Bang Theory explains the origin of the universe, then the universe must have expanded from a point. So if you go back far enough in time, you must be at that point.” “Correct,” said Penzias. “And since this is true for every point in the universe, it means…” “It means that wherever you are you’re at the center of the universe,” I said. I thought about that for a moment. “It means that everyone is at the center of the uni­ verse.” I looked around me. I imagined perceiving the space in the room around me. I ima­ gined expanding my consciousness until I perceived—however dimly—the entire uni­ verse around me. And I was in the center. It was a great feeling. “Wow!” I said. “I am at the center! And so is everyone. That’s just incredible.” “If I may offer an opinion, both as a physicist, and as a Catholic priest,” said Mon­ seigneur Lemaître, “God is a fucking genius.” Self-Referential Metanovel Writing for Dmmies