TINNY Posted March 4, 2004 Report Share Posted March 4, 2004 Since light takes time to travel from the object we see to our eyes, then whatever we see is actually the past, albeit a fraction of a second ago.what if we look into empty space. we would be looking further into the past since the distance it takes to reach our eyes is longer. and since the universe is VERY big, then we would be looking at something near the beginning of the universe.I'm getting confused. Tell me where i'm wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WebFeet Posted March 4, 2004 Report Share Posted March 4, 2004 That's exactly how it works.When you look up at the night sky, you are seeing the stars as they were at some time in history. For all the stars you see, some of them will not exist anymore, and there are other new stars whose light hasn't reached us yet. Light from different elements have their own characteristics. Using these characteristics the amount of redshift can be determined, this then allows astronomers to determine how far the light has travelled, and subsequently how long ago it was emitted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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