If I understand it correctly, we measure time by how fast light passes, or something similar to that. Now if the universe expands faster than the speed of light, would that mean that the universe ages faster than earth, or maybe slower than earth? Maybe this doesn’t make sense but I have a gut feeling that there’s something to it…
In: 97
I think you’re getting confused by the idea that the closer something gets to the speed of light, the slower time passes from its own perspective relative to other perspectives (typically called “frames of reference” in this context).
But the Universe as a whole doesn’t travel at *any* speed. It’s not a thing itself, it’s a collection of other things that all travel at their own individual speeds. None of those things travels faster than light. Rather the space between them increases, and that increase is fast enough that an object very far from you can appear to retreat faster than the speed of light even if it’s not actually moving at all.
All of that sounds bizarre, I realize. And it is. Space gets increasingly unintuitive the deeper you go into it.
Latest Answers