This page was last updated June 27, 2015. But as you can see, the evidence is quite indirect and not something that we can directly see. So, there is some evidence that the universe DID undergo a period of expansion faster than the speed of light. Inflationary cosmology solves these problems in the following way: in the early phase of the universe, it went through a phase called inflation, during which period, the universe expanded by a factor of more than 10 50 in a time-scale of less than 10 -30 seconds. If you are interested in knowing more, then write back, and I can elaborate. Although no object ever moves through the fabric of space itself faster than the speed of light, there is no.
They are a little bit technical, and you can look at books to see a qualitative explanation about these problems. The Universe we have today is disappearing thanks to the accelerated expansion of space.
The problems with standard cosmology are (a) the flatness problem (b) the horizon problem and (c) the origin of density fluctuations (which grew to galaxies and stars today). There are a few problems with standard Big Bang cosmology, which can be solved by "inflation" (an exponential expansion of the universe, which will be faster than the speed of light). But, if at some point it DID expand faster than the speed of light, we will see to the "end of our horizon". So, if the universe never expanded faster than the speed of light, then we could see to the Big Bang, were it not for the CMB which blocks off light before that epoch. In this case, as you have pointed out, the horizon distance will be the point at which the expansion was just at the speed of light what you have called as the "end of our horizon". But there are several indirect pieces of evidence which can tell you about the early universe.īut first, let me tell you as to what would happen if at some instant, the universe did expand faster than the speed of light. Consequently, there is no direct way of telling whether the expansion was at sometime faster than the speed of light. So, we can never see beyond the CMB, and due to this, we can never see to the instant of the Big Bang. Before the CMB originated, the universe was opaque to light.
Atoms still moved at a constant sublight rate in their own reference. While things did get further apart from each other faster than light, it happened not because they were moving but because spacetime was warping underneath them. But expanding, in this case, doesn't qualify as 'movement'. When you read about cosmology, you might have read about the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Yes it did, according to the best available evidence. That's a really good (and hard) question. If at the time of the big bang, if the expansion rate was more than the speed of light, will we know? after all the visible universe ends at about 10-20 billion light years or so (or so I read), but can't it just be the end of our horizon, as the expansion was greater than light speed before that period?
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