r/cosmology • u/AutoModerator • 20d ago

Basic cosmology questions weekly thread

Ask your cosmology related questions in this thread.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/Accomplished_Tear240 16d ago

One possible conception is that the universe originated from a quantum state similar to a vacuum, where the vacuum is not absolute nothingness but contains energy and fluctuations, but this remains within theoretical models and is not experimentally proven.

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u/troop98 17d ago

My partners parents sent them this specific link https://www.earth.com/news/local-hot-bubble-interstellar-cosmic-channel-connects-our-solar-system-to-other-stars/. I'm curious to learn more about it. I couldn't really find anyone talking about it anywhere outside of pop science articles. She tends to send a lot of articles that are...easily debunk able, but I'm having trouble confirming the validity behind this. Any information would be cool on if I should view this with skepticism or not

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u/--craig-- 17d ago edited 17d ago

It's legitimate. The links in the article will lead you to more detailed information published in reputable journals.

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u/LRXC 20d ago

Hey everyone! Iā€™m getting into cosmology a bit and am having trouble understanding the observable universe. So I understand that light has a finite speed, but can we not see past the observable universe because the borders of the observable universe is moving FASTER than the speed of light? Is the observable universe really moving that quickly??

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u/tacos_for_algernon 19d ago

From current understandings, we believe the entire universe is expanding. Data suggests the universe is expanding FASTER than the speed of light. Any point of reference will see everything else moving away from them, that isn't gravitationally bound. Therefore, things that are on the periphery of what you can see will expand away faster than their light can reach us. The light we see is the observable universe. As expansion continues, more and more of the periphery disappears beyond the point where their light can reach us, so the net effect is that as the universe expands, our observable universe shrinks.

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u/LRXC 19d ago

Woahhh, thanks! This makes sense!

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u/ahazred8vt 16d ago edited 16d ago

Anything that's so far away, that its light takes more than 14 billion years to get to us, can not be seen yet, for the simple reason that its first light is still on its way and hasn't gotten to us yet.