Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and honestly I have just began to study Physics. I had never really found it interesting until recently. So I am really new to all of this stuff. I hope I do not sound like a complete idiot, but if I do feel free to tell me. I am just here to learn.
My question is this,
I have been led to believe that the universe started as a singularity. After the big bang the universe started expanding rapidly. I have also learned that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Therefore the universe should not have been able to expand faster than the speed of light. It has been said that the universe is about 14.6 Billion years old.
Now to me this means that the radius of the universe should be 14.6 Billion light years. As I looked into this I found that scientist believe the radius of just the observable universe is about 45.7 billion light years. Something doesn't add up here to me. How could the universe have expanded faster than the speed of light?
To go a little deeper, Einstein's theory of relativity, consist of spacetime. Stars, planets, etc. could not exist without spacetime. Now, to have spacetime, Time must have been able to reach that part of space. If the speed of light travels father than time, How could time have reached an area of space that is 45.7 Billion light years away? Does this mean that time has been since before the big bang?
Please someone help me out with understanding these things.