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How Can the Earth Be So Far Away from the Center of the Big Bang?

-- Jay | August 27, 2021

Timeline of major milestones in the evolution of the Universe since the Big Bang

Question:

I understand that nothing exceeds speed of light. I also understand that the new Webb telescope can see backwards in time about 13+/- billion years to near Big Bang. What I don’t understand is how we, on earth, could have traveled away from Big Bang apparently at a speed greater than the speed of the light reaching us from events 13 billion years ago. I know this must be wrong, but not sure why. Thanks

-- Jay

Answer:

A common misunderstanding about the Big Bang is that it has a center from which the Earth and everything else in the universe expanded. As was noted in our answer to the question Where is the Center of the Big Bang?, there is no “center” to the Big Bang. The Big Bang was not an explosion which radiated from a point but rather an expansion of all points from all other points in the Universe. In this scenario the Earth does not need to travel any distance.

-- Jeff Mangum

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