How galaxies can technically break the universe's ultimate speed limit

Space · Published 1 November 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: It is a fundamental law that nothing can travel faster than light through space. However, because of cosmic expansion, some distant galaxies appear to be moving away from us at speeds exceeding this universal constant.

The distinction lies in the difference between movement through space and the expansion of space itself. While an object cannot outrun a photon within a local frame, the fabric of the universe can stretch. This allows the most distant galaxies to recede from us faster than 300,000 kilometers per second.

This phenomenon is observable in deep field images from the James Webb Space Telescope. It serves as a crucial nuance in cosmology: the speed limit applies to travel through the medium of space, not to the expansion of the medium itself.

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