by emc » Fri Jul 17, 2009 11:37 am
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090717.html
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but here is my take on star gazing. Gazing at stars is looking at the past and that is something that was strangely difficult for me to wrap my head around. My sense is somewhat introverted so I tend to think in terms of “my perception” of things. My perception, without scientific knowledge, tells me that it is now everywhere at the same time. But scientifically, relatively, it is "now" only within a specific point of reference. So when I see a galaxy 15 million light years distant, that galaxy’s “now” is 15 million years into the future from what I see. And that galaxy sees the Milky Way as it was 15 million years ago. So if the caption is speaking in terms of our relative reference, those 10 million year old starbursts are "now" 25 million years old...
[url]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090717.html[/url]
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but here is my take on star gazing. Gazing at stars is looking at the past and that is something that was strangely difficult for me to wrap my head around. My sense is somewhat introverted so I tend to think in terms of “my perception” of things. My perception, without scientific knowledge, tells me that it is now everywhere at the same time. But scientifically, relatively, it is "now" only within a specific point of reference. So when I see a galaxy 15 million light years distant, that galaxy’s “now” is 15 million years into the future from what I see. And that galaxy sees the Milky Way as it was 15 million years ago. So if the caption is speaking in terms of our relative reference, those 10 million year old starbursts are "now" 25 million years old...