How does the Horizon Problem make sense?
Our scientists have surmised that the universe is 14 billion years old thanks to data involving measurements from the Big Bang. Our scientists also have looked at the most distant visible corners of the universe, also known as the “Horizon.”
Here’s the problem: the farthest visible edges of the universe are 28 billion lightyears apart, and were measured through microwave heat rays. Our universe has a steady temperature in space, so there are no hot and cold spots out there. This means that the heat rays had to travel from one part of the horizon to the other.
Nothing is faster than the speed of light. In other words, there’s no feasible (and known) way for the heat rays we’ve measured to travel from one side of the universe to the other. So, does this mean that our universe is older than what we initially thought? Or, does it mean that something else happened?
Scientists started to theorize that the Big Bang temporarily sped up the speed of light so that the universe could expand. That theory, though, doesn’t have enough evidence to work as a complete explanation.
