The universe is 13.8 billion years old. So why can we see 93 billion light-years?
The universe is 13.8 billion years old. So why can we see 93 billion light-years in every direction? That number should be impossible. Light can only travel so far in a given time — yet the observable universe stretches nearly seven times further than it ought to. Here is what actually happened. Space itself expanded. Not galaxies flying outwards through space, but space — the fabric of it — stretching in all directions at once. The light we catch today left its source when the universe was barely formed. In the billions of years that light spent travelling towards us, the space behind it kept stretching, pulling those ancient galaxies far beyond where the light started. And the observable universe is just what we can reach. The full universe could be vastly larger — possibly without limit. Follow Deep Field Vault for more of the universe, fact by fact.