This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.

Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"

(For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)

Rule-breaking posts may result in bans.

[removed]

Maybe if we're observing even distances in all directions. Not sure that's the case though

If you stand in the corner of a room, are you at the center of what you can see?

The observable universe is literally defined to be the sphere of stuff we can observe from Earth. I guess it doesn't really matter if you are actually observing it, but it's still observable

Except there's no corner of the universe that we know of. Observable universe is everything we can see from Earth, so each place in the universe has its own observable universe, which may or may not even include Earth.

Interesting

[removed]

Thats not it boss

[removed]

[removed]

Not technically, just is. This is just a fact. This is not a shower epiphany.

I'm just a layman, but I sympathize with this counter-shower thought. There are things in space that block our view--dark nebulas or even just normal stars preventing us from seeing what's directly behind them. Likewise gravitational lensing occasionally let's us see further than we would normally. The "observable" universe in that sense isn't a perfect sphere with Earth in the middle.

The "center" of the weird shape of the observable universe would be elsewhere. Of course how we could ever settle on the center of an area like that is beyond me.

>The word observable in this sense does not refer to the capability of modern technology to detect light or other information from an object, or whether there is anything to be detected. It refers to the physical limit created by the speed of light itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe

You are always at the center of YOUR observable universe. If it's correct that the universe is isotropic.

What about with gravitational lensing? That might distort our sphere of observability.

Earth is technically the center of the true total universe too, but just our observable lightbubble.

​

But so is literally every other point in space. Every point is the center of the universe

Damn. That's like every kid at the race getting a medal.

[removed]

You missed the point. As did many other people. The space you are in has a center point independent of where the observer is located.

I see lots of people misunderstood

[deleted]

Technically, you're eyes are at the center of your observable universe.