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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?

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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.

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[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.

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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

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