eli5: If space is expanding faster than light in all direction. Why hasn’t the space between our atoms expanded to infinite?
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The expansion of the universe is currently too weak to affect matter that is bound by the weak, strong and EM forces. It’s also true for matter bound by gravity on the scale of a galaxy or galaxy cluster. This expansion force is quantified by Dark Energy, and its way of working is mostly unknown.
As time goes on and more space is created, dark energy may become significant for smaller and smaller groups of gravity bound matter (i.e galaxies, then star systems, then planets). It’s unknown where this stops and if matter bound by the other forces will ever be affected.
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