Im confused

[tom2019]

If an object is 30 light years away, isnt that object isnt that object going to be at least 30 years old??

Looks like im a retard or someone messed up on the bbc news story about the new galaxy.

[B17NNS]

You see the light from it 30 years after it lit up. The light took 30 years to travel to you.

If you see that light for 30 years then it is 30 years old. It might be 60 years old, but you won't know for another 30 years.

Edited by B17NNS on Wednesday 23 October 20:36

[Dracoro]

What's more, that object may have died/ceased to exist 29 years ago! The object may have only lived for a very short time.

[Puggit]

tom2019 said:

If an object is 30 light years away, isnt that object isnt that object going to be at least 30 years old??

Almsot - we are looking at the object as it was 30 years ago... It might not still be around

[GTIR]

I wonder if those planets have grammar police?

[tom2019]

So unless the universe is 30 billion years old some at the bbc messed up...

[sunbeam alpine]

It's actually not so difficult - some objects are very small, some objects are far away.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

tom2019 said:

So unless the universe is 30 billion years old some at the bbc messed up...

What? 30 light years away. The light you see today was made 30 yrs ago. The universe is 13.7 billion years old.

But at the big bang, some objects were projected in the opposite direction from the suff that led to our formation. So, in theory, could be 27.4 billion light years away.

[tom2019]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

What? 30 light years away. The light you see today was made 30 yrs ago. The universe is 13.7 billion years old.

But at the big bang, some objects were projected in the opposite direction from the suff that led to our formation. So, in theory, could be 27.4 billion light years away.

The bbc article says 30billion light years away my bad..

If it was the the case that we are in the exact opposite direction and it is nearly 30 billion light years away that would mean we would be tavelling away from each other at twice the speed of light and would therefore never see this other galaxy..

[Allanv]

GTIR said:

I wonder if those planets have grammar police?

Well that was helpful

I read it and could understand the question so I think you may have the problem.

[Mr Happy]

tom2019 said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

What? 30 light years away. The light you see today was made 30 yrs ago. The universe is 13.7 billion years old.

But at the big bang, some objects were projected in the opposite direction from the suff that led to our formation. So, in theory, could be 27.4 billion light years away.

The bbc article says 30billion light years away my bad..

If it was the the case that we are in the exact opposite direction and it is nearly 30 billion light years away that would mean we would be tavelling away from each other at twice the speed of light and would therefore never see this other galaxy..

I always understood that kind of distance/time to mean that it would take 30 billion years, travelling at the speed of light to get to position x. In other words, a very, very, very, very long way away.

[sunnygym]

Allanv said:

Well that was helpful

I read it and could understand the question so I think you may have the problem.

In other words bore off you tt !

Aimed at gtir

[Urban Sports]

What is the object? If it's the millennium falcon then your guess is as good as mine.

[tom2019]

Looks lile im not the only one whose confused.

[GTIR]

sunnygym said:

Allanv said:

Well that was helpful

I read it and could understand the question so I think you may have the problem.

In other words bore off you tt !

Aimed at gtir

I hope you two never meet. That'd be the dullest party imaginable.

Chill out you dullards. It was a joke.

[DWS]

OK. I am not a scientist.
As far as I understand light travels at 1860000 miles per second (Happy to be corrected)
Hence the Sun rises and sets approx. (Again happy to be corrected) some 8 Min before you see it rise / 8 min before it sets.

Or am I talking carp?

[davepoth]

DWS said:

OK. I am not a scientist.
As far as I understand light travels at 1860000 miles per second (Happy to be corrected)
Hence the Sun rises and sets approx. (Again happy to be corrected) some 8 Min before you see it rise / 8 min before it sets.

Or am I talking carp?

No, it doesn't. the light travels in a (very nearly) straight line. So even if the speed of light was infinite, you wouldn't be able to see the light until he moment that the earth gets out of the way of the sun, so to speak.

However, the sun might have exploded seven minutes ago and we don't know about it.

[GTIR]

Nope. Still here.


Oh, hold on what's that...

[ewenm]

tom2019 said:

The bbc article says 30billion light years away my bad..

If it was the the case that we are in the exact opposite direction and it is nearly 30 billion light years away that would mean we would be tavelling away from each other at twice the speed of light and would therefore never see this other galaxy..

You need to take into account that the Universe is also expanding (space is getting bigger). So the age of the universe and the size of the universe are not linked directly. There is also a period in the early universe of very very rapid expansion of space.

[ewenm]

See this diagram: