Observable Universe – Why Can’t the Observable Universe Be Seen Beyond Its Current Bounds?

observable-universespace-expansionspeed-of-lightuniverse

Why can't we see light from beyond the observable universe?

I've done a lot of research on this and all I've found is unsatisfactory answers and straight up nonsense.

Some claim that the universe "expands faster than the speed of light" beyond the observable universe. Such a claim doesn't even make sense because the units of speed are m/s and for expansion are Hz.
That's like saying "the area of this square is larger than the volume of this cube".

All that the expansion can do to light (as far as I know) is redshift it. And light doesn't have a minimum possible frequency or energy value. So even if the expansion of the universe is very rapid, why does the light of distant objects "never reach us". Surely it still would, just extremely redshifted. In this case it does still reach us, and yet the claim is that it cannot.

We often detect redshifted light, and that light has not been slowed down. When we detect it, it still goes at c, even though (in fact a better word than "even though" here is "because") it is redshifted. Light is always propagating at c no matter the reference frame.

More precisely: does the light really never reach us, or can we just not detect it?

If it never reaches us – why?

If we cannot detect it although it does reach us – why?

Best Answer

The Hubble law is $v=Hd$. When you multiply H by the distance, you get a velocity (units distance/time). That is what the Hubble law is saying. Once you reach a distance (the cosmic horizon) in which the hubble law tell you that Hd=c, where c is the speed of light, that means that an object at such distance is moving away from you faster than light. This is not a mistake, the local speed of light cannot be larger than c, but in general relativity space expands, so even massive object can look to travel at more than c.

The light from a galaxy beyond the cosmic horizon may be sent in your direction, but in your reference frame that light ray will move away from you, because the space (and distance) created in between the light ray and you grows larger than the distance the light ray makes when trying to get "closer" to you. So basically, that light will never reach you. The light tries to get to you but too many space is being added in between, so it will never make it.

Related Question