Stellar Geography (Part 1)

If you don't like science, you will hate this. If you like easy answers, read no farther. There are none.

The universe has a radius of 46 to 47 billion light years. Think what that means. If the Big Bang happened 13 to 14 billion years ago and everything started at ground zero, how can we explain the size of the universe?

Here is the problem. Speck of something, super compressed goes Bang! Everything started at one point, ground zero (GZ) and began to expand or "inflate" in the first few microseconds of existence. I am not an expert, so bear with me on this, but the inflation stage seems to have three phases. First was hyperinflation, where "stuff" raced away from GZ and went way away. Then it slowed down and possibly even stopped. (Not sure here. Different "theories"–theory in a theory?--or explanations.)

I assume that at some point, possibly here, the matter began to accumulate into distinct, identifiable blobs (scientific term) or nebula that would become galaxies and then subdivide into individual stars and solar systems. These masses then began to differentiate into individual entities as discrete stars and accompanying solar systems. It is hard to imagine that happening in the hyperinflation period. (Honestly, it is hard to believe any time, but even more so here.)

Then the matter began to separate again, and according to some, it accelerated and is still accelerating. Notice that it is not just moving apart, it is accelerating. Some unknown force is pulling the universe farther and farther apart, faster and faster. Now, somewhere in that period, the stars all compacted into giant gas balls and literally fused as the fusion reaction began and they started shining. Did the accompanying planets also form simultaneously or were they a subsequent development?

Again, no idea, but let's just continue to speculate. Now we come to the problem. Recall the initial observation that the U is 46 or 47 billion light years in radius? (I assume that is measuring from earth, as if it is the center of all things. (Discussed in another article. I was going to do them together, but it is getting too long. See Stellar Geography 2.) So the farthest solar systems began to send light back to the earth after they formed. Recall that they are 47 billion light years away.

Assuming the universe is 14 billion years old, then the farthest systems would have been sending light for 14 billion years for it to be reaching us now. Here is the tricky part. Light travels one light year of distance in one year. So they would have to have been, at the most, 14 billion light years away for us to see it now. But using the "red shift" concept scientists have "measured" the distance to the farthest stars at 47 billion light years away from us.. See the problem?

If they were more than 14 billion light years away when the started "shining" we would not yet see the light after 14 billion years. So how did they get 33 billion light years farther away than we can "see?" I have read some theories that the inflation also speeded up light, so that it could go "faster." (This is quite helpful in explaining away the relativity "speed limit" Einstein established in his theory. You can figure how the "constant" of light speed affects things when it is no longer constant. I won't wait up.) But then the formation of stellar bodies and accompanying solar systems would have had to happen before or during the expansion. Ain't this gettin' complicated?

Oh, and do not forget, all of this is pure speculation. There is not one speck (excuse the pun) of evidence for any of this. It seems like games that we played as kids. We made up new rules "as needed" whenever we ran into a conflict. I liked being the rule maker. I usually won.

But back to the problem. Getting the stars "out there" and then explaining how the light from them got back here, puts us in a bind.

You know, I'm beginning to think this creation thing isn't so "far out" as it might be portrayed. (Pun intended) Forty-seven billion light years, huh? That is a long ways.