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There are two factors that affect this.

The 'universe' as we describe it has properties we call space-time. Space-time itself can expand faster than light can travel through it.

And regardless of the speed of expansion, in the 13+ billion years since the Big Bang it has continued to expand, so if you observe light from 13 billion years ago, the source of the light has moved in that time making it more than 13 billion light-years away. This combination of most distant light detected (actually cosmic microwave background) and continued expansion establishes the limit of the observable universe.

Since space-time affects the path light takes, you can observe how much the light path is curved in the absence of specific mass objects. There is a relationship between the observed curve in the path of light and the minimum size of space-time. On that basis it can be determined that the minimum size of the universe is even greater than the distance to the limits of the observable universe.

One can decide that all of the observations are misinterpreted and that the physicists who define limits based on these observations are just wrong. Or you can recognize that - right or wrong - the interpretations of the observations form a logically consistent, rational answer.

One of the problems with the pseudo-science of anthropogenic climate change is that they claim to be 'settled science.' No science is *ever* settled to a legitimate scientist. So you won't find honest, responsible physicists telling you that cosmology is 'settled science.' But when there is a logical explanation consistent with all observations, it's probably a good basis to work from.

You have explained this so that even I can understand it. For that I thank you.

When I first looked through a telescope I never thought I would be pondering astrophysics and cosmology. I just enjoy looking through it, but one can’t help but ask questions, and that’s what we do.

For me, for now, God will suffice. But, He did give us brains, but we don’t have enough information to solve the problem because we don’t have access to that information. We can’t reach it right now.

The Answer Is Out There.