"heron stone" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Dark Helmet" wrote:

I see what you're saying, but I think you're missing his point. Let me try
his logic:

1. It took 12 billion years for the light from the nebula to reach us.
2. Therefore, the nebula was 12 billion light years away from us 12 billion
years ago.
3. Therefore, the universe was 14-12=2 billion years old when the light
left the nebula on it's way to us.
4. Therefore, the nebula was 12 billion light years away from us when the
universe was 2 billion years old.

So, the question remains, how did the nebula get 12 billion light years away
from us when the universe was only 2 billion years old? Particularly when
the speed of light is supposed to be the max speed of anything?

Dark Helmet


.well put

.this idea has been bothering me for years and, several
times, i've tried to formulate in language and have
always been dissatisfied with the result
.i don't know why it's been so sifficult for me to
articulate it, because seeing your words makes it
seem so obvious that there is an apparent paradox

.you've come close to saying it as succinctly as possible

.so the question remains... does this apparent paradox reveal
a structural flaw in the theory or an erroneous assumption
on my part (or possibly some other explanation)

.thanks

Due to the expansion of the universe, it takes light much
longer to cover the increasing distances between places in
the universe than if there were no expansion.

The object spotted from when the universe was a mere 2 billion
years old may have been even closer to our (then) position
than 2 billion light years. Here's a crude analogy.

Imagine that there is a bug crawling along the length of an
elastic band. The bug always crawls with constant (local)
speed with respect to the elastic band's surface. So in
this analogy, the bug is like a photon of light which always
travels at a constant speed of c in its local space, and the
elastic band's surface represents space.

Now imagine that the bug is heading from its initial spot A on
the elastic band to spot B which is initially two inches
away. He sets out at his constant speed, but while he's
walking the elastic band is being stretched. He keeps moving
at his constant speed with respect to the surface, but there's
more and more distance to cover as time goes by. Let's say
that by the time he finally reaches point B that, to the
travelling bug, he had to cover 12 inches in getting from A
to B. The "actual" distance between A and B at the time that
the bug arrives at A would be much larger than 12 inches,
since the elastic went on stretching the space behind the bug
all the time he was travelling.