Posted on 12/23/2013 11:57:19 AM PST by lbryce
...some pictures are long exposure shots where the colors that ARE actually there build up over time and become visible. Others images are composite photos.
No actually EVERYTHING, at ANY distance, that we see happened the past whether it’s 186,000 miles away (appears one second in the past) 93,000 miles away (half a second in the past) or right in front of our faces (infinitesimal fraction of a second in the past.) ANY object we “see” is because light traveled from somewhere and it took some amount of time to travel to our retina and what our brain tells us we see happened at some time in the past, whether the duration is unbelievably small and recent like the image you’re reading on your monitor or billions of years in the past like some of the stars you see when you peer into the night sky.
I was just clarifying for others what you said about some objects appearing as they were “fractions of a second ago”. These objects would obviously have to be within 186,000 miles for the light to take less than a second to reach us (light of course travels at 186,000 miles per sec). I understand they could be within 2 or 3 feet, or 2 or 3 inches. I’m not so sure what happens at the level of atomic particles though. Quantum reality is extremely weird.
If you wanna get all accurate about it, many of these objects never actually existed as pictured. Since they are likely very large, the period of time it takes for the image to get here would be different for various parts of the image. In other words, pixel A could be seconds, minutes, days or more older than pixel B.
Excellent and intelligent point. Our own Milky Way, for example, as I’m sure you know, is roughly 100,000 light years across.
Then again, why is it that distant galaxies, many of which are larger than our 100,000-light-year-wide Milky Way, appear so well structured from our perspective? Shouldn’t the far side be a bit ‘off’ from the near side since activity there is potentially 100,000 years separated from the other? Or is 100,000 years a “mere bag of shells” in the galactic scheme of things?
continuing...our Sun takes approximately 250 million years to go once around the Milky Way. So I guess, seen from a great distance, there might not be much visible difference between the near side and far side.
Lol. At least your cactus is for real.
“Quantum reality is extremely weird.”
That must be what takes place in my wife’s car. The thing has already hit the car in the past before she even sees it.
Thanks lbryce, extra to APoD.
You know I have been on the internet a long time when everytime I follow nature photos I expect to see the goatse nebula.
Perish the thought!
Merry Christmas and a wonderful, Happy New Year to you and all the fine folks at the Vendome household, as well as to all my fellow FReepers!
Go outside, look up, and (day or night) consider that ALL that light is hitting your eyeball right now. The amount of information reaching you is absolutely staggering.
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