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This is a link post New Hubble Pics
Now Im a bit shit at astro physics, well just plain physics really, picture 9 shows a galaxy 320 Million light years away. Does that mean that that picture of that galaxy is as it was 320 million years ago, do to the amount of time it would have taken for the light from it to reach the telescope?

My brain hurts as I havnt been to sleep last night. Someone stroke it better please?
 (I helped save b3ta! lord turkey boy and the cleft of venus, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 11:48, Reply)
This is a normal post ive been watching far too many science programmes
i know nothing ofcoarse, but one of them mentions two galaxies coliding, which began 500 million years ago, and the first thought that popped into my head was.. "ooh thats not that long ago int he scheme of things"

strange thought thats all..
 (I helped save b3ta! Jorvic, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 11:51, Reply)
This is a normal post Ha ha ha!
Relativity FTW :D
 (I helped save b3ta! Redsushi! Whoop! Whoop! Yes, that one!, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 11:52, Reply)
This is a normal post I think it does in theory, yeah.
A light year is a unit of distance, which is how far a beam of light travels, in a vacuum in a year. Distance wise, it is a mentally far thing! Something like 9 trillion kilometres or something!

Ace photos :D


EDIT: It is all an elaborate hoax though to confound the creationists ;)
 (I helped save b3ta! Redsushi! Whoop! Whoop! Yes, that one!, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 11:51, Reply)
This is a normal post Haw haw haw! I am a PRANKSTER god!

(I helped save b3ta! Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 12:09, Reply)
This is a normal post Yes.

(I helped save b3ta! Pew Pew Pew! Lasers! wannabe Gong Farmer, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 11:53, Reply)
This is a normal post Exactly
When you look at the sun you're seeing it as it was 8 minutes ago.

Similarly you see the moon as it was about one and a half seconds ago.

Astrophysics is fun like that...
 (I helped save b3ta! evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 11:58, Reply)
This is a normal post Why haven't you been to sleep?
Thats very silly.
 (I helped save b3ta! t0ria has forgotten how this all works, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 11:59, Reply)
This is a normal post I am pretty messed up sleep pattern wise
I can be up for 48 hours and then sleep for 30 odd. I have brain chemical issues. Im off to walk the doggies now and then hopefully I will feel like a nap :)
 (I helped save b3ta! lord turkey boy and the cleft of venus, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 12:33, Reply)
This is a normal post No 2 Goatse FTW

(I helped save b3ta! Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 12:08, Reply)
This is a normal post You're right.
However, distances like 320 million light years are so insanely hypothalamus-shatteringly eyeball-explodingly enormously huge that I prefer to live in ignorance and just think of it as "happening now".

hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire/hires/true/
 (I helped save b3ta! admiral crunch holds the newsreader's nose squarely, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 12:38, Reply)
This is a normal post Yeah I have that view as well
I find it fascinating but as Monty Python so rightly said, "Makes you feel sort of insignificant really" before removing your liver without an anasthetic.
 (I helped save b3ta! lord turkey boy and the cleft of venus, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 13:00, Reply)
This is a normal post This is another baffling thought ive never got right in my head
If the sun suddenly went out, do we get the effects of that immediately or in 9 minutes?

Likewise if something catastrophic happened to a galaxy a couple of million light years away, does it take that couple of million years before we feel the effects here or are we generally fucked at the point of said catastrophic event?

Christ Im not even stoned!!!
 (I helped save b3ta! lord turkey boy and the cleft of venus, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 13:04, Reply)
This is a normal post ...
If the Sun stopped shining now it would still appear to be shining for eight-ish minutes. Same with a more distant event, if something (say a supernova) is observed today in a star 50 light years away, the event took place fifty years ago.
 (I helped save b3ta! lion-cake Bad lion-cake, bad., Tue 10 Mar 2009, 13:23, Reply)
This is a normal post So what your saying is
we would continue to receive radiation from the sun until the 8 minute period was over and then we would all turn to blocks of ice. Similarly if a catastrophic event happened say 2000 light years away and therefore through our telescopes 2000 years ago we wouldnt feel any reaction to said event until the light reached us?
 (I helped save b3ta! lord turkey boy and the cleft of venus, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 13:44, Reply)
This is a normal post I may be wrong here,
but I think that yes, we would still see the light for 8 minutes, but the gravitational effect would be felt immediately?
 (I helped save b3ta! Redsushi! Whoop! Whoop! Yes, that one!, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 15:01, Reply)
This is a normal post yeah thats what Im wondering
So if gravity is an ever present force instantly exerting itself upon everything around it wouldnt that cause anomalies between what we see in the vast distance many millions of light years away and what is actually out there given that old stars may no longer be there, even though we can see them in the past with our telescopes.

I tried to read a brief history of time twice and failed both times.
 (I helped save b3ta! lord turkey boy and the cleft of venus, Tue 10 Mar 2009, 15:25, Reply)
This is a normal post yes
assuming the speed of light has indeed remained constant over the past 320 million years. There's some evidence it has not.

Or you can believe that God not only created those stars 320 million light years away, but also created the light IN TRANSIT to earth at the same time.
 (I helped save b3ta! Foxglove -- it all ends in tears anyway..., Tue 10 Mar 2009, 13:39, Reply)