Universe: 14 bill. yrs old, r = 13 bill. light yrs

[murr045]

How can the universe be 14 billion years old and have a radius of almost the same length light would travel in that time? And we're accelerating?

 

[newtonian]

murr045 - Good question.<br /><br />First, many astronomers now believe our universe has a much larger radius but we only see a small portion of it - limited by our light cone, aka our visibility horizon.<br /><br />Second, one popular cosmology model involves inflation theory, a past period of faster than light expansion, followed by slowing down and now speeding up again in an accelerating universe.<br /><br />Compare my last post on my comparitive cosmology thread - specifically the Lemaitre model.<br /><br />The simpler stretching fine gauze model of Isaiah 40:22 also allows for FTL expansion - it is left for scientists fo research whether there is a speed limit for expansion of the fabric of space.<br /><br />It is important to note that speed on/in the fabric of space does have a speed limit which is the current speed of light in a vacuum. However, there is no known speed limit for the actual stretching out of the fabric of 3 dimensional space.<br /><br />Ditto the 4 dimensional space-time fabric.

 

[bbrock]

I agree with Newtonian. It seems the speed of the boundary of space time ( singularity ) is not limited to the speed of light. Not only that, but it seems to be variable. Either that, or none of this stuff works out at all. <br /><br />So either this theory is correct, or it isn't. But that is the best we have to work with right now. <br /><br />Clear Skies<br />Bill

 

[nacnud]

last I heard the radius of the univers was about 156 billion light years.<br /><br />Look up inflation