Thread: Discrepancy between age and size universe?

It is generally accepted that our universe (otherwise my apologies for posting in the wrong universe..) is about 13.7 billion years old. However we are able to observe a universe that is about 93 billion lightyears across...

anybody around that can explain the discrepancy in lay terms?

The universe expands faster than light.

Have a read of this pdf file for more info (note: the first page is blank)

http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~charley/papers/LineweaverDavisSciAm.pdf

Or, if you are feeling adventurous, you could have a look at these posts I made a while back, which go some way towards explaining how it all can be thought to work:

Looking back in time....

Originally Posted by SpeedFreek

The universe expands faster than light.

Have a read of this pdf file for more info (note: the first page is blank)

http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~charley/papers/LineweaverDavisSciAm.pdf

Or, if you are feeling adventurous, you could have a look at these posts I made a while back, which go some way towards explaining how it all can be thought to work:

Looking back in time....

Hey SpeedFreek, thanks. I have just read your previous post and that's really helped to educate me, I didn't understand the dicrepancy either, and that was a really useful explanation.

Doesn't Defiler's point still stand?

Yep, the universe expands faster than light and suchlike, BUT, we can still OBSERVE a universe 93billion lightyears wide. For that to happen, doesn't that mean the light has travelled to us from 93 billion lightyears away...meaning it's been travelling for nearly nine times longer than the universe has existed?

No, it means that the light that was emitted 13+ billion years ago from that point it was much closer; due to the expansion of the Universe, that point is now 48 million miles away.