how fast is the universe expanding

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I know that the universe is 13 billion years old and the fastest anything could be is the speed of light so if the universe is expanding as fast as it could be wouldn’t the universe be 13 billion light years big? But I’ve searched and it’s 93 billion light years big, so is the universe expanding faster than the speed of light?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It depends.

The speed of light is the universal speed limit for things moving *in space*, but there is no such speed limit for space itself. In other words, the speed limit sign of the universe applies to what drives along the road but not the expansion of the road itself.

The rate of expansion of the universe depends on how far away it is we’re observing. The further away something is the faster the rate of expansion between us. There is a point known as the “cosmological horizon” where the rate of expansion exceeds the speed of light, meaning that any information (I.e light) emitted from that distant star can never reach us again. Light still travels at the speed of light, but the space between us is growing faster then the light can travel so it will never reach our eyes.

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