Still Waters Posted July 27, 2011 #1 Share Posted July 27, 2011 The night sky is a time machine. Look out and you look back in time. But this "time travel by eyesight" is not just the province of astronomy. It's as close as the machine on which you are reading these words. Your present exists at the mercy of many overlapping pasts. So where, then, is "now"?As almost everyone knows, when you stare into the depths of space you are also looking back in time.Catch a glimpse of a relatively nearby star and you see it as it existed when, perhaps, Lincoln was president (if it's 150 light-years away). Stars near the edge of our own galaxy are only seen as they appeared when the last ice age was in full bloom (30,000 light-years away). And those giant pinwheel assemblies of stars called galaxies are glimpsed, as they existed millions, hundreds of millions or even billions of years in the past. We never see the sky as it is, but only as it was. Read more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jugoso Posted July 29, 2011 #2 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Thanks for a great post!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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