- #1
jwcole04
- 3
- 0
I’m joining this forum just to see if someone can answer this question in a way that I can understand, because it’s driving me nuts.
I read about galaxies observed by the Hubble Space Telescope that were formed “shortly” after the Big Bang. For example, the article may say that they are 12 billion light years away (and we are therefore seeing them as they were roughly 1.7 billion years after the Big Bang, assuming the BB happened 13.7 billion years ago).
However, our observable horizon in any direction is 47 billion light years – or 94 billion light years in diameter – due to hyper expansion of space.
Why aren’t these galaxies we can see that were formed roughly 1.7 billion years after the BB referred to as being more like 42-43 billion light years away?
Beyond that, we don’t have any idea how big the universe is since we will never see most objects beyond our observation horizon because they are moving away from us faster then the speed of light. How is it we can even see objects that were formed so soon after the BB?
Obviously, I’m confused.
Thanks to anyone who can help me understand this, or point me to some helpful resources.
I read about galaxies observed by the Hubble Space Telescope that were formed “shortly” after the Big Bang. For example, the article may say that they are 12 billion light years away (and we are therefore seeing them as they were roughly 1.7 billion years after the Big Bang, assuming the BB happened 13.7 billion years ago).
However, our observable horizon in any direction is 47 billion light years – or 94 billion light years in diameter – due to hyper expansion of space.
Why aren’t these galaxies we can see that were formed roughly 1.7 billion years after the BB referred to as being more like 42-43 billion light years away?
Beyond that, we don’t have any idea how big the universe is since we will never see most objects beyond our observation horizon because they are moving away from us faster then the speed of light. How is it we can even see objects that were formed so soon after the BB?
Obviously, I’m confused.
Thanks to anyone who can help me understand this, or point me to some helpful resources.