Light from stars, 15 billion light years away, are reaching the Earth now. But?

Question

But does the Big Bang Theory not predict that all those distant stars to be in our back yard 15 billion years ago?

If the speed of light was indeed faster in the early universe it only means that the light would have been arriving here still earlier and not later

Answer 1

The generally accepted explanation for this is that at an early epoch (lasting a small fraction of a second & occuring when the universe was much less than a second old), space expanded at an enormous rate, much much faster than the speed of light. This theory is called "inflation" and was proposed by Alan Guth.

Answer 2

I think what your saying is: If the light from the stars is reaching us at 15 Billion years old, then 15 Billion years ago they would have been in our neighborhoods when the Universe was smaller.

Correct, but here's the deal. Just after the Big Bang, the Universe expanded exponentially. That is, Galaxies racing AWAY from us shifted to the RED on the Doppler Scale and continued racing away at speed incredible to imagine. Also, though scientist hate to speak of it, its been theorized that Light Speed has not always been a constant in this Universe.

Answer 3

Speed Of Light May Not Be Constant, Physicist Suggests

A University of Toronto professor believes that one of the most sacrosanct rules of 20th-century science -- that the speed of light has always been the same - is wrong. Ever since Einstein proposed his special theory of relativity in 1905, physicists have accepted as fundamental principle that the speed of light -- 300 million metres per second -- is a constant and that nothing has, or can, travel faster. John Moffat of the physics department disagrees - light once travelled much faster than it does today, he believes.

Recent theory and observations about the origins of the universe would appear to back up his belief. For instance, theories of the origin of the universe -- the "Big Bang"- suggest that very early in the universe's development, its edges were farther apart than light, moving at a constant speed, could possibly have travelled in that time. To explain this, scientists have focused on strange, unknown and as-yet-undiscovered forms of matter that produce gravity that repulses objects.

Moffat's theory - that the speed of light at the beginning of time was much faster than it is now - provides an answer to some of these cosmology problems. "It is easier for me to question Einstein's theory than it is to assume there is some kind of strange, exotic matter around me in my kitchen." His theory could also help explain astronomers' discovery last year that the universe's expansion is accelerating. Moffat's paper, co-authored with former U of T researcher Michael Clayton, appeared in a recent edition of the journal Physics Letters.

Answer 4

Yes, but the intervening space that the light has been travelling through has been stretching. So, the "point" at which we see a star is not really where that star is now, or it may not even exist any longer.

Answer 5

I can't make any sense out of your question.

Answer 6

question is unclear