More food for thought

onebigvoice
onebigvoice Scope Member Posts: 859 Pioneering
in Coffee lounge
Just a thought:
In trying to get my head around how long we are on the planet and what is left when we are gone:
I like to think that I am reasonably able to reason most things, so when it comes to relationships I like believe it does come down to the parents, they give you values and responsibilities that allow you to in the future, make decisions and have a family and get a job.
But, in reading something just now I am lost:
A star has just been discovered with the Thomson Telescope, has a star, that has a mass 200 times more than our own sun. As if that is not mind boggling the star is 13.5 BILLION LIGHT YEARS AWAY?
 Now for those of you that don't know at this time there is nothing faster than light? and don't wish to debate this. But my question is if its 13.5 BILLION LIGHT YEARS AWAY and I set up a telescope ( a decent one) now. I would be 13.5 billion light years old before I actually saw it and by the time I realised Isaw it I would be 17 billion light years before I realised that no one had seen this planet before?
Why is this so? 

Comments

  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 14,992 Championing
    Yep this is something that interests me. Always loved astrophysics, I just could never get my head round the maths. The way I understand it...If there were intelligent aliens 2000 light years away looking at Earth right at this moment, the light from Earth has taken 2,000 years to reach them so, right now, they would be seeing Earth in the year 23 AD. It is true you can't travel faster than light because if you could you'd be able to time travel.
  • rustledjimm
    rustledjimm Online Community Member Posts: 91 Empowering
    edited June 2023
    When you look at something 13.5 billion light years away what you are seeing is light that is 13.5 billion years old.

    Chances are the star doesn't even exist anymore. You are just seeing light that left that star 13.5 billion years ago, traveled across all that space and entered your eyes. Light years is also not a time unit, it is just a distance unit. It is the amount of distance light travels in one year.
  • onebigvoice
    onebigvoice Scope Member Posts: 859 Pioneering
    Then by those maths if they left their now by the time they get here, will be today and if so would the paper I wrote the message on still be in one piece.

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