Isotropic. Homogeneous is a whole other thing. You can be either without being the other.
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Yes, we do. There is a dipole red/blue shift due to the Earth’s orbital motion and another, smaller, one due to the Sun’s orbital motion. These have to be subtracted to see the pretty WMAP pictures.
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From the article, “In fancier terms, the universe is both homogeneous and isotropic.”
I think an “up” is probably defined by Federation treaty for member worlds and allies. For non-Federation worlds, the Enterprise probably orients itself to the local “up” (probably part of automatic protocol downloads) to be polite.
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The universe is indeed both. But the article concerns evidence of isotropy only.
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Or there is a center but it is not in the three dimensional volume we occupy.
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This is why the Astronomican, sustained by the God-Emperor on his golden throne on Holy Terra, is the point of reference for all navigation. Obviously.
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Andromeda?
Since I observe, I am the center of the universe, (relatively.)
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Well, how can you tell which way up an alien ship is? For all you know every bird of pray is upside down and you never noticed.
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I think, therefore I crash.
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My universe goes ‘up’ all the time. It’s almost like it can’t help it.
Oh great…something else to worry about. I don’t know if I’m sitting down or standing up.
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Aren’t people aware that the center of our romantic lives is the Roman Empire? I thought that was common knowledge!
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Oooooooo, band name.
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That’s why I don’t presume that time and place exist independently of each other. Simultaneity can’t ever be truly established. Every time is actually a place, and vice-versa. My position in time is an arbitrary measurement, but one second ago exists now one light second away.
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This problem was solved back in 1988. “Up” being any direction you choose, therefore…
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In casual conversation, I avoid using “up” or “down” unless others get stubborn about it. They seem like Flatland orientations to me. People often seem vague about whether or not they are talking about position relative to themselves, or gravity. So I use in/out as more appropriately three-dimensional directions. For whatever has the strongest local gravitational effect - your gravity well, if you have one - “in” orients to its center, and “out” orients away from it.
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A light second is not a measure of time. You’d have to be going the speed of light to be one light-second away from where you were a second ago. You are going pretty fast though, when you count the rotation of the earth, it’s orbit around the sun, the Suns path through the Milky Way and the galaxy’s path through the universe. You’re actually pretty far away from where you were a second ago.
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