The cosmic light horizon, animated

There are six animations on this page. The first two animations below show two light sources that are both within the central point's horizon, but not quite within each others' horizons. The light from the left source will never reach the position of the right source. Both animations show exactly the same thing, but the scale on the lower animation "zooms out" as the universe expands to make it easier to see how space expands between the points.

The next two animations below show two light sources that are almost outside the central point's horizon. This is similar to the case of the cosmic background radiation, which was emitted only 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when the universe was much smaller than it was now, but which is only now reaching us some 13.3 billion years later, having travelled a distance larger than the distance between source and destination when the light was originally emitted!

The final two animations below show two light sources just outside the central point's horizon. The light from the left and right points will never reach the central point. This is perhaps easiest to see on the first animation, even though both show exactly the same situation.


G. Horton-Smith, 2006/12/04