How is the expansion of the universe faster than the speed of light?

But no object is actually moving through the Universe faster than the speed of light. The Universe is expanding, but the expansion doesn’t have a speed; it has a speed-per-unit-distance, which is equivalent to a frequency, or an inverse time.

How fast did the universe expand during inflation?

According to inflation theory, during the inflationary epoch about 10−32 of a second after the Big Bang, the universe suddenly expanded, and its volume increased by a factor of at least 1078 (an expansion of distance by a factor of at least 1026 in each of the three dimensions), equivalent to expanding an object 1 …

Can the universe itself expand faster than the speed of light or is it constrained to obey the special theory of relativity?

It’s true that in special relativity, nothing can move faster than light. But special relativity is a local law of physics. Or in other words, it’s a law of local physics. You can only measure something’s velocity and actually call it a “velocity” when it’s nearby and when the rules of special relativity apply.

How cosmic inflation flattened the universe?

Observable truths such as the CMB and the flatness of our universe reveal that there is no way the universe has been expanding at a constant rate since its beginning. It turns out Cosmic Inflation solves the Big Bang’s major problems quite well.

Is the universe expanding faster or slower?

The most plausible explanation for the discrepancy is that the light from the supernovae, which exploded billions of years ago, traveled a greater distance than theorists had predicted. And this explanation, in turn, led to the conclusion that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up, not slowing down.

What is beyond the universe for it to expand into?

The universe is everything, so it isn’t expanding into anything. It’s just expanding. All of the galaxies in the universe are moving away from each other, and every region of space is being stretched, but there’s no center they’re expanding from and no outer edge to expand into anything else.

How does cosmic inflation solve the horizon problem?

The small universe inflated by a large amount and the part of the universe you can observe appears to be nearly flat. That solves the flatness problem. The horizon problem is solved by inflation because regions that appear to be isolated from each other were in contact with each other before the inflation period.