If it's true that the deeper we look into space the further back in time the light is coming from then does that mean that just behind the cosmic background radiation the entire sky is filled with an unviewable image of the singularity that was the big bang and can that mean that we are sat at the centre of the Big Bang?
1 Answer
Since the Universe evolved from something like a singularity, where all of space was contracted to a point, yes, we are at the center of the Big Bang. So is every other point in the universe.
The CMB represents the light from a universe-filling plasma that lasted for roughly 378,000 years. It is a feature of the observable universe, rather than something that is actually there in the present universe; in particular, we can never reach it, as it's the same distance away from every point in the universe. As such, there's not much sense in talking about what's behind it, much like talking about what's behind a shadow.
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$\begingroup$ Thanks for that. Could we all be entangled since the singularity? $\endgroup$ Jun 20, 2017 at 0:32
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$\begingroup$ We can't even get systems of a thousand atoms to stay entangled for any length of time in the best lab conditions, let alone $10^{76}$ atoms! So the answer is no, because decoherence is a powerful thing. $\endgroup$ Jun 20, 2017 at 0:34
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$\begingroup$ So, if the CMB is everywhere, lets forget about that for a moment but if you could look just past the furthest galaxy, could you see the big bang (thought experiment ignoring c)? and the fact that light wasn't bouncing around until CMB? $\endgroup$ Jun 20, 2017 at 0:38
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$\begingroup$ Nope! Before the recombination event that released the CMB, the universe was effectively opaque. $\endgroup$ Jun 20, 2017 at 0:39
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$\begingroup$ How do you think entanglement works? I heard the Chinese are transmitting successfully from satellites enabling unbreakable encryption the other day on radio 4 $\endgroup$ Jun 20, 2017 at 0:42