Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

[deleted] t1_jb0ynig wrote

Reply to comment by Something_Else_2112 in Does the age of the universe depends on where you are? by _bidooflr_

Not only is that information old, but you will never be able to receive information from those places as they are today. They are moving from us faster than the speed of light due to the expansion of space, and will never again be connected to us (unless of course the expansion is only local in the larger universe and will later reverse, or some other unknowns). It's groovy to think about.

54

TheDoctorIsInane t1_jb1ut2z wrote

So where will that information end up? It'll never get to us even though it is heading in our direction. What is the right way to think about it?

5

ibringthehotpockets t1_jb21oiq wrote

That light is traveling towards us at the speed of light. Always. Eventually the distance between us will be expanding faster than the speed of light. That light will never reach us. You could say it’s in a limbo of some type.

20

[deleted] t1_jb2kmm7 wrote

It continues to travel through space towards us but the space expands to fast for it to "catch up". Unless something is tightly enough connected to counteract this, it will happen to everything separated by space. The current models even predict that in the far future, the only information available will be that from the local cluster of galaxies. The space between our cluster and the other ones will, although it is relatively small today compared to the visible universe, expand at a faster and faster rate. 1 unit of space becomes 2 units of space in some time, then 4 units of space, 8 etc...

We are actually fortunate that we may observe light all the way back to where it started! The "observable horizon" is still behind the beginning of time, so to speak.

14

Energylegs23 t1_jb2vji4 wrote

You know one of those hallways in a dream that stretches out so you never actually reach the end? Light is basically trapped in one of those where the "hallway" is the fabric of space-time

4

zman0313 t1_jb3ivm5 wrote

In this case, can we really consider them part of the “observable” universe?

2