[keepthebeercold (Sven)]

sjastro, thank you very much for your explanation and the provided link. I had a quick look at it and I think I should be able to digest it with a bit of effort.

Now I only have to find a few quiet hours of reading time.

Small edit: as you've given me such a great answer, may I ask whether you'd be able to point me towards some good reading material, be it blogs, articles or books, concerning the current understanding of the expansion of space? I'm wondering about questions like: if space expands, do our measuring sticks not expand with them and if so how do we measure the expansion? Or - does the expansion of space assume or imply that space at Planck level is continuous and not discrete?
Thanks again.