# Cosmology question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmology-question/709988>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 16, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmology-question/709988 "2015-01-16T16:10:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmology-question/709988/1 "2015-01-16T16:10:38Z")

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It says in my 2015 _ **Old Farmer’s Almanac** _ that “The extent of the known Universe is 38 to 47 billion light years in every direction.”

The almanac’s astronomical data is usually quite reliable, but how can the above be true if the Big Bang was only ~13.8 billion years ago? 😕

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**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmology-question/709988/2 "2015-01-16T16:37:38Z")

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[Relevant to your interests](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_expansion_of_space).

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**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmology-question/709988/3 "2015-01-16T16:53:58Z")

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Moved Cafe Society --\> GQ.

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**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmology-question/709988/4 "2015-01-16T17:18:59Z")

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It’s bigger on the inside.

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**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmology-question/709988/5 "2015-01-16T17:19:05Z")

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> [@terentii](#):
>
> It says in my 2015 _ **Old Farmer’s Almanac** _ that “The extent of the known Universe is 38 to 47 billion light years in every direction.”
> 
> The almanac’s astronomical data is usually quite reliable, but how can the above be true if the Big Bang was only ~13.8 billion years ago? 😕

The age of the universe and its size don’t necessarily correlate 1:1.

Though it makes sense to draw the conclusion that the universe should be 13.8 BLY in size since going faster than _c_ isn’t possible for energy/matter.

However, this isn’t true for spacetime itself. Which our current models show is expanding.

There’s also the Inflationary Period that came just after the big bang, which in just a few zillionths of a second, inflated the domain of our universe far beyond that of what _c_ would prohibit. You can then see that the inflation that happened during this time, pushed our “cosmic horizon” out beyond our grasp, and probably plenty of space and matter along with it.

[See Inflation Theory (Wikipedia).](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_(cosmology))