mech@feddit.org to

Ask Science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 9 days ago

Can anyone explain the expansion of space to me?

33

Can anyone explain the expansion of space to me?

mech@feddit.org to

Ask Science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 9 days ago

I just don’t get it.

According to the theory of special relativity, nothing can ever move faster than light speed.
But due to the expansion of the universe, sufficiently distant stars move away from us faster than the speed of light.
And the explanation is…that this universal speed limit doesn’t apply to things that are really far away?
Please make it make sense!

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FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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9 days ago
Spacetime, the medium through which light is traveling, is itself expanding. As someone said earlier, its akin to blowing up a balloon, except the balloon is inflating faster than light would be able to traverse the distance along the surface of the balloon.

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