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To: Darth Reagan
I've never seen this addressed...maybe my math and assumptions are faulty

The objects appear to be farther than their age would indicate assuming they are travelling through space. They are even farther in real time. It appears they have travelled faster than light to get to their present positions, but this does not count the expansion of space. This is not a problem for cosmologists because they make it all up as they go. Your math and assumptions may be faulty anyway.

96 posted on 01/09/2002 3:27:29 PM PST by RightWhale
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To: RightWhale
It appears they have travelled faster than light to get to their present positions, but this does not count the expansion of space. This is not a problem for cosmologists because they make it all up as they go.

A currently popular variation of the big bang theory is that there was a brief, initial spurt of incredibly rapid expansion. This is the "inflationary" scenario, and I understand that there are actually several versions of it. Inflation solves some problems that "classic" big bang theory left in its wake ("smoothness" among them) but I have my doubts that inflation theory is well developed yet. Everyone has doubts about something, but we plunge ahead anyway. Anyway, FTL expansion is considered a possibility at this very early stage. It seems to be theoretically permissible, at least in the sense that no causality paradoxes could have occured. And as a result, some things may appear to be farther away than the age of the universe would seem to allow. Of course, their light wouldn't have had time to get to us yet, so it's not something we're going to worry about today. Everyone confused? Fine. Class dismissed.

108 posted on 01/09/2002 4:11:51 PM PST by PatrickHenry
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