See the Light of Creation: Viewing the Big Bang

[arj67]

I've heard it stated on popular TV science programs that light from the big bang could seen if we could look far enough into empty space. How could we get where we are before the light from the process that created us?

 

[Fredrik]

That light was emitted almost simultaneously at every point in space, about 380000 years after the big bang. Right now we're seing the light that was emitted a specific distance from us. Tomorrow, we'll see the light that was emitted a little bit further away.

 

[Chronos]

A neutrino telescope could theoretically peer back to nearly the time of the big event itself. Building such an instrument is a challenge. We will, however, never see photons emitted sooner than about 380.000 years after the big bang. Space was opaque to photons prior to that time.

 

[arj67]

The comments are interesting, but the question has to do with the speed of light and the speed at which the material that made up our solar system moved away from the point of the big bang. We are at some distance from the point of the big bang and we must have traveled faster than the speed of light if we could now see the light from the process that created us 14 to 20 billion years ago. Is there some other explanation?

 

[Fredrik]

We are at some distance from the point of the big bang

This is incorrect. There is no "point of the big bang". I have written some comments about that in other posts. I suggest you start with this one, and then read the ones I'm linking to in the quote near the end.

This is a direct link to the article I'm mentioning there.