this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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I just don't get it.

According to the theory of special relativity, nothing can ever move faster than light speed.
But due to the expansion of the universe, sufficiently distant stars move away from us faster than the speed of light.
And the explanation is...that this universal speed limit doesn't apply to things that are really far away?
Please make it make sense!

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[โ€“] whaleross@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Adding to other answers to your question, once you've grasped how it is, here is another mindfuck for you.

Eventually the space between stars will be too big for emerging intelligent species in the far future on other planets to ever even know a starry sky. There will simply put not be any meaningful light from other stars to reach them. Their entire universe will be their star system and then nothing.

[โ€“] bstix@feddit.dk 2 points 9 hours ago

The alternative might be worse. If light was faster than the expansion of the observable universe, the entire sky would eventually be bright as all the stars combined.