How old each Image is?

[vijay96238]

Hello friends,<br /><br />This is my first post in the group.<br /><br />While reading on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way<br />"The distance from the Sun to the galactic center is now estimated at 26,000 ± 1400 light-years while older estimates could put the Sun as far as 35,000 light-years from the central bulge."<br />& looking at image,<br />i am wondering @ how old the image would be.<br />If i assume, whatever image is captured by all giant & most advanced telescopes, -- That shows some of the galaxies/ Or part of our own galaxies that are XXXXX or say, ~10000 light years away,<br /><br />Should i consider that the image is atleast 10000 years (i.e. earth's time) old ? -- Because that image, light must have lived through 10000 light year to reach to our telescope. <br /><br />Are we getting wondered in this wonderful space!<br /><br />Vijay.

 

[vijay96238]

<br />I found update on another article!<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light<br />(Last few lines of Overview section)<br /><br />"Because light travels at a large but finite speed, it takes time for light to cover large distances. Thus, when we see the light of very distant objects in the universe, we are actually seeing light emitted from them a long time ago: we see them literally as they were in the distant past."<br />

 

[MeteorWayne]

Not sure which image you are talking about in the article. Can you be more specific? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[SpeedFreek]

Yes, the images we see of stars and galaxies are what those objects used to look like when they emitted the light we see. The further away an object is, the more out of date our view of it is.<br /><br />Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is around 100,000 light years across, so stars on opposite sides would each see how the other star looked 100,000 years ago. But remember, there are also lots of stars in between.<br /><br />If you look at a photo of some stars and one of them is, say, 2000 light years away and another is 30,000 light years away, then you are seeing one as it was 2000 years ago and the other as it was 30,000 years ago.<br /><br />The furthest galaxies we have viewed are seen as they were around 13 billion years ago! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[heyscottie]

ANYTHING you look at is seen as it was sometime back in time. Even as you look at your hands on the keyboard, you are seeing them not as they are, but as they looked about 1 ns ago. (Light travels about 1 ft in 1 nanosecond.) The sun looks as it was about 8.5 minutes ago. The closest star system, Alpha Centauri, looks how it was about 4 years ago.<br /><br />We see NOTHING happening AS IT HAPPENS.