techristian writes:
Because we have RED SHIFT on many of the stars, this would indicate that the universe is still expanding at near light speed.
That wouldn't be quite the best way to put it I think.
First of all, the measured redshift is the combination of how the stars/galaxies are moving (away)
through space, and how the space
itself between us and those stars/galaxies is constantly expanding.
I believe every unit of space is thought to be expanding at the same rate. The reason why more distant objects display a higher amount of redshift, is that they are seperated from us by MORE space. MORE units of space expanding at the same rate means more rapid removal in total.
Since the early universe, light from distant places has been trying to reach us. Light from some of the more distant areas hasn't had enough time to reach us (this is beyond our observational horizon). And it also WILL never be able to reach us, because by now expansion has created so much space between us and those places that the current expansion results in them moving away from us at a higher speed than the speed of light. (not violating relativity since it is not a speed
through space) Effectively, our observational horizon is
shrinking such that we potentially see less and less of the total universe.
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