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http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040524.html
"All the pieces add up to 78 billion-light-years. The light has not traveled that far, but "the starting point of a photon reaching us today after traveling for 13.7 billion years is now 78 billion light-years away," Cornish said. That would be the radius of the universe, and twice that -- 156 billion light-years -- is the diameter. That's based on a view going 90 percent of the way back in time, so it might be slightly larger."
I found it quite interesting that he said even though nothing can travel faster than the speed of light - it's perfectly OK for space between two objects to expand at faster then light speed. Or rather for the distance to grow so quickly that they appear to be flying apart at faster than light speeds.
But still -- 156 Billion LY? What do you think of that?
"All the pieces add up to 78 billion-light-years. The light has not traveled that far, but "the starting point of a photon reaching us today after traveling for 13.7 billion years is now 78 billion light-years away," Cornish said. That would be the radius of the universe, and twice that -- 156 billion light-years -- is the diameter. That's based on a view going 90 percent of the way back in time, so it might be slightly larger."
I found it quite interesting that he said even though nothing can travel faster than the speed of light - it's perfectly OK for space between two objects to expand at faster then light speed. Or rather for the distance to grow so quickly that they appear to be flying apart at faster than light speeds.
But still -- 156 Billion LY? What do you think of that?