Steven Hawking's universe

[Adamski]

hi all, I've just been watching his program of "the story of everything" on Discovery and he was talking about the big bang and how fast the universe grew to the size it is today. At the very beginning within a billionth of a second the universe was the size of an orange, then after one second it was the size of our solar system, now this next bit is confusing, when the universe was 10 minutes old he says it was many light years across but how can this be.? We all know that so far light speed is the ultimate speed, so how can the universe be light years across when it's only 10 mins old?

[Dave R]

We all know that so far light speed is the ultimate speed, so how can the universe be light years across when it's only 10 mins old?

Light speed is the fastest that something can travel through space, not the fastest rate that space itself can expand.

[jamespels]

Very nice explanation here...

The Size of the Universe: A Hard Question : Starts With A Bang