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

571 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

> distance from the center where the big bang occurred…

There’s your mistake. There is no such center where the big bang occurred. The big bang occurred everywhere.

Don’t think of the big bang as a conventional explosion think of it as an expansion of the space of the universe. Imagine the universe is the surface of a balloon covered with glitter or dots. The dots/glitter represent all the stuff in the universe. The big bang, and the continued expansion since is like blowing up the balloon. As you blow it up, the surface stretches (space expands) and all the stuff gets further away from each other, with no “center” to the expansion.

You are viewing 1 out of 10 answers, click here to view all answers.