Is There a Massive Time-Image Gap in Observing Distant Galaxies?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eden27
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
Images and data collected from distant galaxies are indeed millions of years old by the time they reach Earth, as light from these galaxies takes millions of years to travel to us. For instance, observing a galaxy 10 million light years away reflects its state from 10 million years ago. This creates a significant time/image gap when considering the vast distances involved in space observation. The delay in human perception, such as the 50 milliseconds it takes for sight to occur, further emphasizes this gap. Understanding this phenomenon is crucial for interpreting astronomical data accurately.
Eden27
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Are the images and data we collect of galaxies and other bodies millions of light years away millions of years old by the time we even take them? For example human sight takes about 50 milliseconds to occur. So there has to be a massive time/image gap between such great distances right?
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org
Right!

An image of a galaxy 10 million light years away is showing it as it was ten million years ago.

BTW, welcome to these Forums Eden!

Garth
 
Thank you for both an answer and the welcome.
 
Is a homemade radio telescope realistic? There seems to be a confluence of multiple technologies that makes the situation better than when I was a wee lad: software-defined radio (SDR), the easy availability of satellite dishes, surveillance drives, and fast CPUs. Let's take a step back - it is trivial to see the sun in radio. An old analog TV, a set of "rabbit ears" antenna, and you're good to go. Point the antenna at the sun (i.e. the ears are perpendicular to it) and there is...
This thread is dedicated to the beauty and awesomeness of our Universe. If you feel like it, please share video clips and photos (or nice animations) of space and objects in space in this thread. Your posts, clips and photos may by all means include scientific information; that does not make it less beautiful to me (n.b. the posts must of course comply with the PF guidelines, i.e. regarding science, only mainstream science is allowed, fringe/pseudoscience is not allowed). n.b. I start this...
How does light maintain enough energy in the visible part of the spectrum for the naked eye to see in the night sky. Also, how did it start of in the visible frequency part of the spectrum. Was it, for example, photons being ejected at that frequency after high energy particle interaction. Or does the light become visible (spectrum) after hitting our atmosphere or space dust or something? EDIT: Actually I just thought. Maybe the EM starts off as very high energy (outside the visible...
Back
Top