Wouldn't this mean it is also infinite in spatial dimensions? In other words, if an infinite amount of time has already passed, and light still can't connect two very distant points in the universe, that seems to be the very definition of an infinite spatial dimension. So if there was no time zero, then the universe is infinite in a time dimension (at least going back). The universe has existed forever, and there have always been points that were too distant from each other for light to have ever traveled between them. I think most of you are saying that if the universe had started from a singularity, then it would be true that no two points could be further apart than the distance light could have traveled. Let me see if I am interpreting these answers correctly. Nothing can travel THROUGH space faster than light, but space itself can expand with no upper limit on speed. There was also a brief moment in the very early universe when the entire universe expanded so rapidly that points right next to each other moved away faster than that. Now scale up to the size of the universe, as the whole thing expands, the further two objects get away from each other, the faster they separate, the ends of the visible universe are moving away from each other far faster than light. If you double the length of the rubber band from one foot to two in 1 second, the endpoints moved away from each other by one foot in a second, but two points that start only an inch apart, have only separated at a speed of 1 inch / sec. Think about a rubber band with two marks on it, now stretch the rubber band. The universe did not start from a point, it started dense, but not a point.Īlso, about the faster than light thing, you aren't thinking of the universe as a whole. Now go, see how our universe grows to its current size, but there is way way waaaaaaay more out there. Okay, got it? Now imagine an infinite number of those points all next to each other. Imagine everything in the entire universe condensed down into a point. How is this possible if the universe started from a singularity, and expanded at the speed of light? My understanding of the nature of space is that any location can be considered the center of the universe, so no point should be beyond the distance that light will have traveled.ĭon't imagine the first state of the universe as a point. (I'm paraphrasing, but I think this is pretty much what he said, and I've heard similar statements from others). In Brian Greene's book, Fabric of the Cosmos, he mentions that not enough time has passed for light from some parts of the universe to reach us.
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