“They tell us that 97 or 98% of the “visible” universe, is moving away from us, due to universal expansion (space itself is expanding) faster than the speed of light...”
Ok the problem is you are confusing two different facts. One fact is that 97-98% of the visible universe is moving away from us. A separate and distinct fact is that the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light. You can’t put those together and conclude that 97-98% of the stars and galaxies are moving away from us faster than the speed of light, because most of them are not.
Think of the universe like a balloon. As it inflates, the distance (measured along the surface) between our dot on one side of the balloon and a dot on the other side of the balloon expands very quickly. But the distance between our dot and a dot right next to us expands much more slowly. So the farthest points in the galaxy are moving away from us faster than the speed of light, but the closer ones are not.
I understand that the speed of expansion is proportional to distance.
97-98% of the visible universe moving away from us faster than the speed of light, was a quote from someone on one of the Science channel shows... I have to assume that he misspoke when he stated this, if this is not the case.
Because my brain instantly went to, if 98% of the visible universe is moving away from us faster than the speed of light, how is it we even see the “visible universe” at all.