Friday curious. How the expansion of the Universe doesn't break the speed of light limit

[kiaa]

Just 13.8 billion years after the hot Big Bang, we can see 46.1 billion light-years away in all directions. Doesn't that violate...something?

Well, no. Details under the LINK

- The cardinal rule of relativity is that there's a speed limit to the Universe, the speed of light, that nothing can break.
- And yet, when we look at the most distant of objects, their light has been traveling for no more than 13.8 billion years, but appears much farther away.
- Here's how that doesn't break the speed of light; it only breaks our outdated, intuitive notions of how reality ought to behave.

Comments

[nairiporter]

Fascinating subject. A student recently asked me in class, if space is expanding then shouldnt that include the space between matter like in our bodies and such?

[abomvubuso]

The speed of light limit applies to stuff moving through space, it says nothing about the rate at which space itself can expand.