I’m not wrapping my head around this properly. I’m under the impression that all the matter in the universe originated with the big-bang. yes?
I’m also under the impression that it is not possible to move faster than light. Yes?
For us to see light from 13.7 billion years ago, we’d have to be 13.7 billion light years away from the point that light originated from. Yes?
So, how is it possible that if we are made up of material from the big-bang, then we had to travel all the way out to where we are now (13.7 billion light years away from the spot we started)? how’d we get here quick enough to see light that was created right along with us? ie: from the big-bang?
It’s not like we can look at the light from our star and see anything other than light emitted 8 minutes ago. How can we look across the universe and see light that started out at the same point we did…13.7 billion years ago?
So, how is it possible that if we are made up of material from the big-bang, then we had to travel all the way out to where we are now (13.7 billion light years away from the spot we started)? how’d we get here quick enough to see light that was created right along with us? ie: from the big-bang?
You’re asking all the tough questions. You just have to have faith, in science.
So, how is it possible that if we are made up of material from the big-bang, then we had to travel all the way out to where we are now (13.7 billion light years away from the spot we started)?
If you come back in about 13 billion years, science might provide an answer for you.
First off, the article says the light is from 13 billion years ago, somewhat after the big bang, and after scientists believe matter cooled enough to form stars.
So, the matter forming our planet would have been flung outward 13.7 billion years ago, then later, these stars would have formed. In other words, the light wasn’t created during the big bang. It was created some time later when the first stars formed.
Actually, I think it gets even better. Not only has light been travelling for 13.7 billion years or so, but the universe is expanding, meaning that the total space of the universe is increasing. To clarify this, most people would think that if all original space and light originated from a single point, and then travelled at the speed of light, then the universe would have an approximate diameter of 2 x 13.7 billion light years, or approximately 27.4 billion light years. But, because of the expansion theory, some people extimate that the universe is in the neighborhood of 47 billion light years in diameter (I am only 60% sure of that number, it was a while ago since I read the article). Of course, there are the others that believe that our universe is just one of many countless other parallel universes. There is some astronomical number that each parallel universe is supposedly separated by, I’m thinking it was like 132 billion light years.
We need Astrotri to chime in here.
edit: One other thing, from Hawkings work with quantum mechanics a while back, he showed that using the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that light could exceed the speed of light near a black hole. That constant might not be so constant.
That depends on if you are referring to “Expansion” or “Inflation”. Normal expansion is referenced to the Hubble’s constant that scientist are continually trying to refine as it leads to a backwards extrapolation of the age of the universe and the state of whether or not the universe will expand forever or contract back into a single singularity. A lot of that has to do with accurately measuring the distance of relatively local stars as reference points to the red shifting of galaxies far, far away.
I’d hazard the guess that you’re more likely referring to Inflation theory in which sometime between 0 and 400,00 years the Universe underwent a short and rapid exponential expansion before returning to its normal rate of expansion. Thus at 400,000 years, the Universe was far more than 400,000 light years in radius.
If you’re interested in more about this subject, I would recommend Origins by Tyson and Goldsmith. It covers a lot of the physics and theory in a readable enough format for even idiots like me to somewhat grasp.
I started to try to explain some of it here, but fail totally. Suffice it to say that they believe that the universe expanded faster than the speed of light in the first moments of the big bang. Then, after 380,000 years, the universe was cool enough for these super stars to form.
On the idea that all matter came from the big bang, that may or may not be true. I can’t explain it, but they provide the theory that under the conditions of the new universe, atoms continually pop into existence.
The concept that confuses me is that scientists use red-shift to determine how far light has travelled to get here. But they also say that light passing through dark matter becomes “redder”. I’m sure that they account for the combined effect when calculating ages.
And thanks for posting that article. This geek finds it extremely interesting even though I can’t grasp many of the concepts.