How can the universe be 156 billion light years across?

Question

Scientists seem to state the size of the universe 156 billion light years ago. But they say it is only ~14 billion years old. That means if no laws were violated, it's maximum diameter could only be 28 billion light years across? To get to the size it is now would have to expand at an average rate of over 5 times the speed of light. How can this be?

Here are the sites I got the size from

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3753115.stm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5051818/

Answer 1

I've never heard the 156 billion number, and I don't think any mainstream theory claims that specifically. However, according to one interpretation of the Big Bang theory called Inflation, that size would be possible.

Inflation suggests that a split second after the Big Bang, the universe's expansion went totally nuts and the universe expanded at an incredibly accelerated pace -- so much so that space expanded far far faster than the speed of light and the universe went from nothing to being huge all in a fraction of a microsecond -- and then things suddenly slowed down again.

The key here is that the speed of light limit only refers to the speed of light THROUGH space. Space itself can do anything -- it's not a violation of relativity that space itself might expand faster than light.

Answer 2

From what I understand only the visible universe is estimated to be 12 to 15 billion years old.

A couple things to consider:
1. Space expansion has a much higher speed limit than the speed of light. Reason space need not contain matter so its limits are not bound by E=mc2.

2. The universe could very well be 156 billion years old but because we can only measure what we can see one could never prove or disprove the age of the universe.

3. It has been considered that 14 billion years ago light traveled at much higher speed. Why couldn't light have always traveled the same speed limit but had covered much more distance due to its particles being stretched with the expansion of space. ;-o

Answer 3

In cosmology, there are quite a few very diverse measures of distance. One degree is how lengthy it took for the ordinary we see to get the following elevated by the speed of sunshine. We see 5 billion year previous ordinary from a galaxy which became 3 billion ordinary years (angular distance) away at the same time as it emitted the ordinary. We more often than not say that galaxy is 5 billion ordinary years away. yet, because the ordinary left that galaxy, the upward push of area has moved the galaxy to a distance of perhaps 10 billion ordinary years away (wild wager). So ordinary emitted from that similar source at present would take one hundred billion years to attain the following. The CMB glow is meant to be about 13.4 billion years previous (relationship from the time at the same time as the universe first grew to develop into clear, about 380,000 years after the large bang). It became emitted by factors that are literally about seventy 8 billion ordinary years away. in case you double that, you get 156 billion ordinary years. notwithstanding, in accordance to significant bang idea, the diameter of the universe is an similar as its radius. it really is because gravity warps the area turning the ordinary in closed area-time loops. If it really is genuine, then the diameter must be seventy 8 billion, no longer 156 billion. speaking as individual who would not trust in huge bang, i'd propose you to be fantastically skeptical of all those distance measures, yet do attempt to comprehend what's meant by them.

Answer 4

As far as I know, there are only theories as to how large the universe might be, and if it is finite or infinite. Or neither. It's possible that there are natural laws of science which we are unable to comprehend at this point in time.

String theory suggests the possibility of multiple parallel universes contained within what they (string theory scientists) refer to as "the bulk", or what we typically think of as the universe.

Our universe could be a small particle contained within some other mass. Atomic structure resembles the structure of solar systems and galaxies. Why is this? Is there an infinite number of progressively larger structures containing smaller structures? Is there a particle smaller than a quark?

Perhaps someone else will post a better answer... but I don't think there is "an answer" to the question of how large is the universe. There are theories but nobody knows for sure.

Answer 5

If that's the case, imagine if you could see the universe right after the big bang. It would be round and getting bigger as time went by. A beach ball is round, the same shape as the Earth and so forth the same shape as the universe. But as you can see as you stand on the Earth, you can tell that it is flat,same as the universe, it's a flat universe. So as far as I can tell, the universe is 156 billion light years in circumference.

Answer 6

You heard it wrong - no scientist ever said anything about 156 billion light years. The furthest observable objects so far are about 10 billion light years away.

Answer 7

I'm curious as to where you read it was 156 billion light years across.

Answer 8

The unimaginable size of the universe is a testimony to the fact that it MUST be created. But 102 years ago Einstein proved this when he pointed out that the universe was NOT infinite but expanding. And expanding from a central point meant expanding from a beginning, which means there was a beginner.

But God isn't limited to one location when He creates.

Answer 9

The speed of light might have been faster at an earlier point of time.