eli5: How can stuff be further from the center of the universe than physics allows?

569 viewsOtherPlanetary Science

Ok so the diameter of the observable universe is 93 billion light years. That means the distance from the center where the big bang occured to the outer edges of our (observable) universe is roughly 46,5 billion lightyears.

The fastest speed in the universe is the speed of light and the universe is 13,7 billion years old.

Doesn’t that mean that the farthest anything can be from the centre of the universe is 13,7 billion lightyears?

In: Planetary Science

10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

As already mentioned, space ins expanding. Everything in it expands as well. This effect does not affect small stuff like a solar system. Or it does, but the gravitational forces correct the small expansion. On a larger scale, two points in space can expand faster than light speed, if they are far enough away.

A second more strange thing is, that space itself expanded REALLY fast shortly after the big bang. This theory is called inflation theory. So in a fraction of a second the universe expanded from practical nothing to several light years.

So to sum this up, space expansion is not bound to light speeds. There does not seem to be a speed limit to it.

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