If the Universe is about 13.7 billion years old, and the diameter of the observable universe is 93 billion light years, how can it be that wide if the universe isn’t even old enough to let light travel that far that quickly?

Question

If the Universe is about 13.7 billion years old, and the diameter of the observable universe is 93 billion light years, how can it be that wide if the universe isn’t even old enough to let light travel that far that quickly?

In: 5624

Answer 1

The universe can expand faster than light can travel. There’s no contradiction.

Don’t think of expansion as some blastwave from the big bang radiating into nothingness. Every point in the universe that ever will exist already exists, and has existed since the big bang. All that’s happening is that the distance between any two given points is increasing.