I discovered i had a misconception about ...

expanding space ...

so i decided to dedicate my thesis to finding out what was wrong.

It turned out that I had learned that space was expanding at school, by blowing up balloons with dots on them.  This model had so impressed me that I was still clinging to it.  Which is why I couldn’t accept that the Andromeda Galaxy is coming towards us!  This also led to difficulty with other concepts in  cosmology .  

I finally worked out a different sort of model that DID allow me to visualize Andromeda coming towards us.  I called it the Timeslice Model, and I am including it here because I hope it may help somebody else .

If anybody would like to find out more about the timeslice model, you can find the whole thesis here.

The idea is to imagine the universe as a flat sheet when it was very young.

Over time it has been billowing up as it expands, but is still weighted down where there is a great accumulation of matter.

Now it looks like an eggbox, with most of the mass concentrated in the bottom of the cups and with a much greater distance between them.

Scroll down to see the new model, which I hope clarifies it for you all!!

try looking at it this way ...

Expansion of the universe

The timeslice model

Figure 1 of the Timeslice Model. 10 billion years ago, the universe was almost completely flat
At first, the Universe was almost completely flat
Figure 2 of the Timeslice Model. 7 billion years ago. Space has billowed out around the hubs of mass.
Then it began to billow out between the hubs of matter
Figure 3 of the Timeslice Model. Universe now.The space between the jubs of matter has stretched four times more
Now the space between those hubs of matter has stretched four times further

It may be easier to see them all on the same page in a simple line version … like this …

The simple line version of the three figures of the Timeslice Model showing expansion of the universe

Well, it helped ME!