<p>Thirteen billion years ago, the universe was already much larger than 13 billion light years across. It may in fact be infinite.</p>
<p>At that point, our galaxy may not have existed (I'm not sure), but the hydrogen that is now in it did exist. Let's pick one such hydrogen atom for reference. At that point in time, light left a galaxy that was 13 billion light-years from our reference hydrogen atom. Over the following 13 billion years, our galaxy and then our solar system formed. Meanwhile, the light from the other early galaxy was approaching us, and the galaxy the light came from was getting farther away. Finally, this year, the light is reaching us. Meanwhile, by now, that galaxy is even farther away from us.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-23T05:17:44.500Z
2022-01-23T05:17:44.500Z
Mark Foskey
<p>If we are at point A in the universe and something is say 13 billion light years away, wouldn’t we have to travel wayyyy faster than the speed of light from the Big Bang in order to turn around from point A and “look back in time” that far? I don’t know if I’m making any sense here, but how did we get “here”, 13 billion years before even the light from those galaxies got here?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-22T04:02:32.953Z
I guess you are asking this question inspired from"How JWST could see 13 billion years back in time"
Kavin Ishwaran
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-22T07:53:24.930Z
Does this answer your question?  https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/6397/how-can-light-reach-us-from-14-billion-light-years-away?rq=1
Dave Gremlin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-22T08:02:18.310Z
Your question has a different title, but its the same as the one about the centre of the universe.  You assume the "big bang" was an explosion that happened at one place (the centre) and we travelled away from it.  That's not correct.  **The big bang happened everywhere.**
James K
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-22T08:03:25.103Z
Also https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/874/do-we-know-the-exact-spot-where-big-bang-took-place  You've actually asked the same question before. https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/25710/location-of-big-bang?noredirect=1&lq=1
James K
<light>
How come we see something xx light years away?
iMerchant
# How come we see something xx light years away?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-01-22)

If we are at point A in the universe and something is say 13 billion light years away, wouldn’t we have to travel wayyyy faster than the speed of light from the Big Bang in order to turn around from point A and “look back in time” that far? I don’t know if I’m making any sense here, but how did we get “here”, 13 billion years before even the light from those galaxies got here?

**Tags:** light

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I guess you are asking this question inspired from"How JWST could see 13 billion years back in time"  
> **username_2**: Does this answer your question?  https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/6397/how-can-light-reach-us-from-14-billion-light-years-away?rq=1  
> **username_3**: Your question has a different title, but its the same as the one about the centre of the universe.  You assume the "big bang" was an explosion that happened at one place (the centre) and we travelled away from it.  That's not correct.  **The big bang happened everywhere.**  
> **username_3**: Also https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/874/do-we-know-the-exact-spot-where-big-bang-took-place  You've actually asked the same question before. https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/25710/location-of-big-bang?noredirect=1&lq=1  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2022-01-23. Score: 0

Thirteen billion years ago, the universe was already much larger than 13 billion light years across. It may in fact be infinite.

At that point, our galaxy may not have existed (I'm not sure), but the hydrogen that is now in it did exist. Let's pick one such hydrogen atom for reference. At that point in time, light left a galaxy that was 13 billion light-years from our reference hydrogen atom. Over the following 13 billion years, our galaxy and then our solar system formed. Meanwhile, the light from the other early galaxy was approaching us, and the galaxy the light came from was getting farther away. Finally, this year, the light is reaching us. Meanwhile, by now, that galaxy is even farther away from us.


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