If the universe is 13 billion years old how do we have stars 45 billion light years from earth? Wouldn’t that light take 45 billion years to reach us?
In: Physics
The thing you have to keep in mind is that space isn’t finite, it’s expanding.
So the light has been traveling for 13 billion years to reach you, but in that time the distance between you and the source of that light has increased and stretched out.
From the way I understand it lightyears is a measure of distance that’s based on time. Even though the universe is only 13 billion years old, that’s the whole universe so something 45 billion light years away could also have been created 13 billion years ago.
If I’m 30 years old and you’re 55 years old, we can be 1000 miles apart.
I think what you might be trying to ask is how we can know that there are stars 45 billion lightyears away from us or if that’s a hypothetical age.
Again, not an expert. I’m basing this answer off of memories of high school science classes.
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