[HeartlandOfAmerica]

The edges of the observable Universe are now moving away from us considerably faster than the speed of light.

I don't understand this. In theory, if everything started as a singularity at the time of the Big Bang, then how can I have Hubble images on my hard drive of galaxies colliding?

In theory everything started in the singularity and exploded into on a direct path away from everything else at the same speed and trajectory??

Everything should be flying away from everything else and collisions between galaxies should be impossible.

Thanks :)

[Gideon7]

I don't understand this. In theory, if everything started as a singularity at the time of the Big Bang, then how can I have Hubble images on my hard drive of galaxies colliding?

The edges of the observable Universe are now [emphasis added] moving away from us considerably faster than the speed of light. The remotest galaxies weren't going that fast when their photons were originally emitted circa 10-12 billion years ago. That is what the Hubble is seeing.

Any photons emitted today from those same sources will never reach us in the future.

Remember, it is the fabric of space itself that is stretching apart at an ever accelerating rate. Relativity applies to objects moving through space, not space itself. (Think of it like an ant crawling along the outside of inflating balloon, where the balloon is blowing up faster than the ant can walk.)

[Gideon7]

Collisions are local (see post 15).