# Does the speed of light limit apply to the universe as a whole?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-speed-of-light-limit-apply-to-the-universe-as-a-whole/662298>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 30, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-speed-of-light-limit-apply-to-the-universe-as-a-whole/662298 "2013-06-30T23:30:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-speed-of-light-limit-apply-to-the-universe-as-a-whole/662298/1 "2013-06-30T23:30:55Z")

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Years ago I read an article (I think it was in Popular Science) that a group of scientists had discovered two objects were further apart in light years than the age of the universe and the angle of their divergence could account for.

Is this theoretically possible? Could the fabric of space actually be expanding faster than the speed of light?

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-speed-of-light-limit-apply-to-the-universe-as-a-whole/662298/2 "2013-06-30T23:35:59Z")

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> [@dstarfire](#):
>
> Is this theoretically possible? Could the fabric of space actually be expanding faster than the speed of light?

Yes and yes. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on [metric expansion of space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_expansion_of_space).

The speed of light is a feature of spacetime, but because space itself expands, things can be further apart than the speed of light alone would allow.