age and distance problem

curious

I've always wondered about how the edge of the universe and the age of it contradict in my opinion.

As general theory explains the farthest known space objects are 15 billion lightyears away, thus (they say) establishing the age of the universe at 15 billion years.

BUT: apparently those space objects at the border of the universe were there 15 billion years ago ! This raises several questions:

- So where are they now?
- if they were there 15 B years ago and the universe was created from a big bang and a central point, it should have taken them 15 B years to reach the edge of the universe. So the universe is twice as old as everybody argues. And much bigger at this exact moment. Or maybe already falling to pieces ...

Hmm, where does this go wrong. Or does it ?

Just curious

texastiger

Let me first restate your comments about the problem you have with the current explanations of the big bang theory, then express my opinion.
RESTATEMENT: The universe is said to be 15 billion years old and that the big bang created what we see today. In every direction we look we see stuff at the edge of our vision that is close to 15 billion years old. If we can see 15 billion years in one direction and 15 billion years in the opposite direction, then that adds to 30 billion years. How can the universe be only 15 billion years old? If we were in the exact middle of the universe created by the big bang then at most we should be able to see 7.5 billion years in each direction. No matter where we are in the universe the addition of the age of the farthest objects in any two opposite directions should add to no more than 15 billion years. Then you said, “Hmm, where does this go wrong. Or does it?”
MY OPINION:
[THEORY] In “open” and “flat” universes parallel lines forever diverge or remain parallel respectively. Therefore in every direction you look you see light that has followed an essentially straight line to get to you, exceptions exist for small curving due to gravitational lensing. In open and flat universes you would in fact see no more than a sum of 15 billion years in any two opposite directions. The background microwave radiation, the evidence of the big bang, would be unobservable. All big bang photons would be far beyond us on their straight line paths away from the big bang site. As this is not what we observe, then our universe is “closed”. A closed universe is one in which there is so much matter so close together that all matter is gravitationally bound and will one day be pulled back together. You may have heard this idea referred to as the big crunch. In a closed universe all light and all objects eventually curve back into the gravitational center of mass, nothing escapes.
[APPLICATION] The light emitted 15 billion years ago by the big bang radiated out in every direction and each photon has been on an extended elliptical path ever since. Each photon follows a curving path that terminates when it strikes an object or when it like we eventually returns to the gravitational center of mass of the universe. When we “see” the background microwave radiation today our observational devices are catching these primal photons as the Earth intersects their highly curved path. We can observe these photons in every direction because each has followed a very different curving path to get to us.
[SIMPLIFIED EXAMPLE] Let us imagine two observers on Earth, one on the North Pole and one on the South Pole. Each can observe the background microwave radiation. The North Pole observer is seeing photons emitted by one side of the big bang, say it is the top, and the South Pole observer is seeing photons emitted very close to the opposite side of the big bang, say the bottom. The “top” photon traveled “up” to the maximum extent of its arc and then curved back “down” as it was drawn by the gravity of the entire universe until it was observed at the North Pole. Likewise the “bottom” photon traveled “down” to the maximum extent of its arc and then curved back “up” as it was drawn by gravity until it was observed at the South Pole. All other directions are more complex to imagine, but at each point on the big bang sphere photons were emitted and have been traveling to maximum points on their arcing paths and then falling back due to gravity. Only a few of these paths come near Earth, but for each different point on Earth’s surface there is a circuitous path from the big band sphere. Each photon captured in a given second appears essentially the same because it has traveled the same amount of time to reach us. The background microwave radiation can be observed all day every day because each successive photon has traveled a slightly longer path and time to get to our observational device.
A similar simplified example can be made for the galaxies visible in the Hubble ultra deep field. Imagine the relatively “small” sphere containing all the visible galaxies that existed only a few hundred billion years after the big bang. Then use the “top” and “bottom” designations as was done above with the big bang photons. We will see these early galaxies in every direction as they existed over 14 billion years ago and the light will appear to have traveled over 14 billion years to get to us.
JUST MY THOUGHTS.
Texastiger

ma1999

Correction. If we were in the center. Right at the spot where the big bang blow the light would have reached 15 bn ly in every direction. So the size of the universe should be 30 bn ly in diameter.

Bent light (bent space ?) is the only way to pair up seeing the birth of the universe in every direction with a single point big bang.
A static universe starting at a relativly small size and then affected by dark energy push might work otherwise.

I dont think anyone disagrees that somehow light dont travel in strait lines. I't may want to and think itself that it does but if it did we would not what we see.

To me a static universe with light bouncing all over (and possibly pushed apart by dark energy) makes much more sence, but I'm not the cosmologist.

conscendo_1064

curious I completely think just like you.

age and distance problem

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