[Eppyfone (OP)]

Hi

I read that at about 1 second after the big bang the universe was about a thousand times bigger than the solar system is now.  That would mean that it must have expanded faster than the speed of light!  My understanding was that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light - so how can this be?

Thanks

Eppyfone

[Soul Surfer]

Because the objects in the universe were not travelling fast.  The materials in the universe were travelling much slower because it was space itself that was expanding around them this allows the separation between objects to increase faster than the speed of light without the objects themselves moving quickly.

The precise reasons and process of expanding space heve not yet been fully explained.  It is very probably related to the dark matter and dark energy that has been proved to exist there are several possibilities.

[Nizzle]

Soul surfer is right.
Here's a real world analogy.

Suppose you're on a riding train.
You are the particle in space, and the train is the space.
If you run to the front of the train at your own maximum speed, you're moving faster than your maximum speed on the tracks on which the train is rolling.

But the question now is, If space is the train, then what are the "cosmic tracks" []