Bubblesofearth wrote:How can the galaxy be 35bn LY's away if the universe is only 13.8bn years old?
Is this a mistake or am I missing something/
BoE
The universe is expanding faster than the speed of light*. Before you quote Einstein, nothing is moving faster than light, it's space that's expanding. An analogy:
Take a partially inflated balloon and, using a felt tip pen, draw some spots on it. Then inflate it more. The spots themselves don't move, they're still on the same bit of balloon you drew them on, but they've all moved further from each other 'cos the "space" between them has expanded.
Now, as for the confusing measurement of galactic distances, it's all a matter of which measure ... here's another analogy:
Imagine a moving walkway. Jane is standing at the start of the moving walkway (but not on it), and Joe is on it and, of course, moving away from Jane. After a while Joe rolls a ball along the moving walkway towards Jane. At the point he does so he is X feet away from Jane but, as he continues moving away from her, by the time the ball reaches Jane, Joe is Y feet away.
Joe is the galaxy and Y is 35bn light years.
P.S. As well as X & Y there is a third distance, being the distance the ball travelled....
* And actually it's expanding faster the further away things are. Get your head round that!