Nothing can go faster than the speed of light, then how at the time of inflation space expanded faster than the speed of light? Clearly universe had already begun at the start (10−36 seconds) of inflationary epoch.
2 Answers
It's really meaningful to talk about the "speed of the expansion of space", because space is everywhere and there is nothing to compare its speed to.
We can say that "space is expanding, and as a result of this, two stars have an apparent relative velocity that is greater than the speed of light", but this is a bit different, and it also doesn't require that they be moving relative to the space near them.
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Light (or anything else) cannot go faster than light in space. Nothing prevents space from expanding faster than light. From the big bang the universe has expanded, meaning space has expanded. The universe did not expand inside space, as there was no space to expand in. The inflationary period was a period of very rapid expansion of space, not inside space.
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