Sunday, November 20, 2005
Seeing is not believing.
Every time you look up at a clear sky in the dark of night, you are seeing the universe as it never was. The light from all of those stars left at different times in the past. Two stars that may appear to be side by side may in fact no longer exist as both may have already exploded and dispersed into space. Star A may have come into being a billion years ago, may be 20 million light years away and exploded 10 million years ago. We just haven't gotten the light from the explosion yet. It is also possible that Star B came into being 1 million years ago, is 3,000 light years away and exploded 1,000 years ago. We also would not have gotten the light from that explosion to know about it either. So those two stars in this example did not exist at the same time, yet our eyes not only suggest to us that they did, our eyes also tell us that they appear to be side by side. In the example it never happened that Star A and Star B existed at the same time, yet we plot our star maps as if those stars are really there where we see them. And so it is with all stars and other luminous bodies. We see the universe as it never was every time we look out at the sky on a clear night. It is impossible to see the universe as it is or ever was.
You may ask, "So what?"
To offer a tease, the "So What?" will be answered in subsequent blog posts by yours truly.
- Scorpiaux
Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
