universe question lol

Smallz3141
Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:48:25 +0000

The universe is not “matter”. That implies that the universe ends at every momentary vacuum, whether it’s interplanetary, interstellar, intergalactic, etc. But anyway the universe isn’t expanding like a growing vine, it expands because the very fabric of spacetime expands. That is why the balloon analogy is used, it’s not like the universe is expanding past known “matter” (which is an incorrect way of thinking about it). All the “matter” is over this balloon, and the balloon is inflating, the rubber, the fabric of spacetime, is expanding…not growing.

The universe is ~14 billion years old, and the reason we see objects beyond 14 Billion light years away is because spacetime is expanding between galaxies, increasing the distance, which reddens the photons. You’re right that they have found objects close to 14by old, that’s one way they determined the age of the universe, but they certainly haven’t found anything “older”, that would imply that object was there before the universe…which obviously makes no sense.