A start might be to ask how far it is to the most distant object we can see. If the universe is about 13.7 billion years old, we could see something that is quite a bit farther than 13.7 billion light-years away now because of the expansion of the universe that has taken place during those 13.7 billion years.

Imagine a photon emitted from a distant light source 13 billion years ago. How much has space expanded behind that photon as it has travelled to us. How much farther than 13 billion light-years is that light source now?

This article is dated Feb. 21, 2005 and the exact age of the universe, plus the Hubble constant is a bit more accurately known today, but the idea is still valid.

http://space.mit.edu/~kcooksey/teaching/AY5/MisconceptionsabouttheBigBang_ScientificAmerican.pdf

The distance they give to the furthest object we could see is about 46 billion light-years. (their guesstimate, not mine).

As for how much more universe is out there beyond our visible horizon…good question…

Presume that we look in any direction in the sky, could gravity bend the light from our star & galaxy such that we are looking at ourselves [hypothetically] one billion years ago? We know that we are not stationary in our galaxy & universe such that we are moving is some arbitrary non-linear direction and is dependent on perspective. If gravity can slow light, to an outsider we ourselves generate some degree of red-shift. So, if a complete circle/circuit takes a billion light-years we could be looking at ourselves 1 billion years ago with a certain self-inherant red-shift plus that generated by the gravity slowing of light. Then another 1 billion years further back we would see ourselves again PLUS the red-shift from the first circuit adds to that of the second circuit for the next sighting. Every circuit adds to the red-shift which we presume that farther objects are travelling faster & faster as apparent “distance” increases.

If this theory, which astrophysicsts can probably inject lots of holes into it, the whole concept of “WHAT IS THE UNIVERSE?” would boggle the mind such that we have to say the universe is infinitely finite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I have used blys billion light years, both a measurement of distance and/or a mesurement of time (should have bys for time).)

Now some believe that the early universe expanded faster than the speed of light. Why do they believe that. when gravity, electromagnetize, light etc all travel at the speed of light, a maximum velocity acording to relativity. The only reason that they believe that universe expanded faster than the speed of light, is that it is the only why their model of the big bang works. Now I would rather say the model is wrong.

if someone can expain where this logic is wrong, please explain. glennro@gmail.com Astronomers have so accepted this big bang model, they cannot think outside the big bang box.

This would assume that once the light leaves its source galaxy that no more redshift occurs while the light traverses the space in between the source and the earth. Is this the current presumption? If a light source is 1 billion light years from earth, it then takes 1 billion years for the light to get to us and during this time the universe will experience an appreciable amount of expansion. It seems resonable to assume that the traveling light will also be affected by this additional expansion. If so, then the light we detect will not provide the same redshift that resulted when the light left its source. It will be the sum of the rate at which the source is receding, AND the amount of expansion that has occurred during its travels to earth. The farther away a light source is, then the greater the transitional redshift would be due to this transitional redshift factor, and would give the appearance of faster expansion for farther light sources.

Any feedback regarding this curiosity of mine would be appreciated.

You are seriously and dangerously deranged. That is simply one of the best, most clever smart-*ss comments I have ever seen posted on here…and that is saying a lot. I’m scared to think what else might be going on inside your mind. Hope it comes out here more often. Thanks for the hardest laugh I’ve had this summer. Even my wife liked it and, being married to me, lost much of her sense of humor years ago. In her defense, she says the only reason she has let me live this long is her sense of humor. Oh well. Thanks again.

Actually, it’s not. It’s a gravitational redshift.

Re: the rest of what you wrote: yeah, yeah, yeah, typical creationist dissembling garbage. You can pick one thing and say, “dunno, therefore creationism might be right.” The fact is that redshift comes out of an extremely well tested theory and paradigm. Redshift is the direct measurement of the expansion of the Universe, but the whole Big Bang picture is supported by a vast quantity of observations. We’re really sure the Universe is expanding, as sure as we are that humans as a species evolved from earlier species.

-Rob

The past’s red shifted mightily
The future’s blue and sure
Blog passengers signed on to see
Phil’s “rrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeOOOOOWWWWWWRRRRRR” tour
His “rrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeOOOOOWWWWWWRRRRRR” tour…..

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