Starship Asterisk*

Chris Peterson wrote:

dduggan47 wrote:I'd have thought that since we're dealing with light, that distance and time are pretty much the same thing. We're seeing the object as it looked 15 million years ago.

What am I missing?

It's a question of semantics. "Now" has formal meanings in physics, and can be used different ways. It is perfectly correct to talk about "now" in terms of the relationship between two objects and their light cones. In a very real sense, we are seeing every object as it is "now", even if it is 15 million light years away. It doesn't matter if the light took 15 million years to reach us- we are seeing it as it is now in our own frame of reference. In that sense, what is happening "now" if our clocks could somehow be synchronized (which is a difficult concept) is actually happening 15 million years in the future.

It is also possible to use "now" as if there were a universal clock. It really comes down to the math chosen for an analysis, and it's not so clear that either way of using "now" has a better or more accurate physical meaning than the other.

Dr Ohm wrote:I believe this Starburst Galaxy NGC-1313 is the best proof I've seen yet that Black Holes do wander around out there in the Universe. One passed close enough to this once previously Barred Spiral Galaxy and literally tore it apart. It caused massive gravitational waves to pass thru it causing all the gas & dust compression into the rampant Star urst Formation we see today. Once this Galaxy finally pulls back together it is going to be very bright. Just my opinion.

doesn'tmatter wrote:This galaxy should be called Rearing Horse Galaxy. It looks like a horse on its hind legs.