Re: How could objects be further than 14 billion light years apart?

Hi Dave,
 
There's been a lot of excitement recently as new and powerful astronomical 
surveys discover objects further away than any that have been detected
before.  It seems that every week the record gets pushed back a little
further.

The basic answer to your question is that even if the universe is only (!)
14 billion years old we can see objects further away than 14 billion light 
years because the universe is expanding.  Because of of this expansion,
the object is further away now than it was when the light that we see
today was emitted.  Or in other words, the light from the object may have
been travelling for close to 14 billion years, but the distance we measure
now must be greater than 14 billion light-years because the universe itself
has gotten bigger since the time the light was emitted!

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is one of the major surveys that is turning
up extremely distant objects.  Their web page has a comprehensive
discussion of your very question, so I would recommend you look there
for more information!

  Meghan

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