The observable universe
Why 93 billion, when the universe is 13.8 billion years old?
Because space itself expands. The most distant light we receive set out 13.8 billion years ago, but the regions that emitted it have been carried away by expansion ever since — they are now about 46.5 billion light-years away in each direction. The edge of the observable universe isn't a wall; it's a horizon, like the view from a ship. The universe almost certainly continues beyond it — possibly infinitely.
The end of the ladder
This is the final rung of the Cosmic Zoom before the Big Bang itself — where the journey runs out of universe. Everything on this site — the planets, the Sun, the light-hours of emptiness between worlds — fits inside one pixel of one pixel of this view.
Keep going
Every figure on this page is a real, rounded value checked against primary sources. Found something out of date? See how we keep it accurate.