Freaky Fzx Friday - The Expanding Universe

As we get older, we tend to expand horizontally.  The universe has been doing the same.  Looking in all directions, we see everything moving away from us.

That's one example of the Doppler effect.  The bumper sticker above refers to the "blue shift" of a car approaching the bumper of another vehicle in front of it.  What we are considering is the opposite - the red shift' of receding objects.  It's the same concept as the sound heard from an approaching or receding ambulance.

The sound we hear is higher pitched as it approaches and lower frequency (pitch) as the ambulance moves away.  The frequency of blue light is higher than that of red light so we see a shift toward the red - like a lower pitch - if something in a telescope is moving away from us.

We see this red shift everywhere we look in the universe.  It turns out that the farther objects are receding faster.

Where was the universe at the beginning?  Where is its center?  How big is it?  And just how small are we?

Just one more thing. The universe isn't actually expanding - space is.