Was the speed of light different in the early universe?

Question

When the universe was much smaller at the dawn of the time , 13+ billions years ago, would the more concentrated matter/ mass not distort space time through gravity on a completely different scale than today? How much would this affect the light we see now? More red shifted etc than it really should be if the universe had always been the same size?
I am thinking about this as gravitational lensing of early galaxies suggests that light takes longer to get here than if it came here directly without lensing. Would the considerably smaller universe not exaggerate this effect dramatically? Then tailing off the closer to the present time it gets.
This confusion also concerns me in relation to question of how fast the universe is expanding as the further you look back in time the more space time would look curved from our point of view.

If you read all then I am already in your debt. this confusion has concerned me for ages. Please put me out of my ignorance thanks a billion remainz

I know that light always travels at the same speed the real question is would light appear different to us due to universal gravitational lensing?

Answer 1

How light would appear due to universal gravitational lensing? I think some of your difficulty comes from your trying to put the cart before the horse. As eri points out in this thread, spacetime curves around massive objects BECAUSE light always travels at the same speed, not vice versa. In the early universe, the velocity of light would still have been "c", and this is why gravitational lensing would certainly have been a particularly noticeable feature of the early universe.

Your other source of confusion may arise in understanding the true nature of the Big Bang which created not just space, but hyperspace. The space in the universe is expanding but the gravitational lensing effect is happening in spacetime. The curvature of hyperspace is barely measurable in the universe as it stands now: But the embryonic universe would have been an extremely tightly curled up knot of spacetime just like a black hole with light bouncing around inside it at "c". I don't think we could really say much more about it from our humbly 3 dimensioned perspective. You just have to do the math.

Answer 2

The singularity of the big bang contained no matter so there was no gravity to distort anything. Light did travel from that point at the same speed it does today but it has stretched into the wavelength of micro waves as the background radiation we now detect from all points of the cosmos.

Answer 3

When the first space-time pulse launched the universe there was no motion or speed.
The entity accelerated from zero to the speed of light in one-thirty billionths of a second.
Once the radial velocity attained the speed of light it never changed it couldn't go any faster so it remains the same in outer space.

Answer 4

There has been some debate ... current models of the early universe require a period of something called 'inflation' (when the Universe expanded FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT) ..

Answer 5

The trick to Einstein's theory isn't that the fee of sunshine is a continuing, yet that it is the comparable IN ALL FRAMES OF REFERENCE. while you're on the floor and an astronaut is drawing close you at 0.5 the fee of sunshine and unexpectedly shines a flashlight in direction of you, he sees the easy bypass away the flashlight at c; you notice the flashlight coming in direction of you at c. assessment that to status in front of a automobile vacationing 60 miles an hour, being pushed by making use of somebody who can, while at relax, throw a baseball at 50 miles in line with hour. If the motive force leans out and throws a baseball to you, he sees it bypass away his hand at 50 miles in line with hour; you notice it coming in direction of you at (50+60) = one hundred ten miles in line with hour. in case you bypass in the process the derivation of E=mc^2 (no longer pronounced for the mathematically faint at heart, yet conceivable while you're prepared to put in the attempt), you will see that the actual fee of c would not rely. E = mc^2, despite if c has it is cutting-edge fee or a various one. So if c had a great fee in the early universe, then rely might have had greater desirable relax capability.

Answer 6

The distortion of spacetime does not determine the speed of light. The speed of light is a constant, and there is no reason to believe that it has changed over the course of time.

Answer 7

The speed of light is a constant.
a fixed speed,no matter how long ago or in the future. Good question though!!!

Answer 8

No one can be certain - but it seems likely that the inflationary period immediately after the big bang happened faster than light, so possibly yes.

Answer 9

why would the singularity have any gravitational effect. it was all energy, no mater. energy doesnt exert any gravitational force, therefore your question of gravitational lensing is null and void.