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To: jimmyray
If the universe is only 14.7 billion years old, how can you possibly see objects that are located tens of billions of light years from the earth?

I am not an astronomer and my data may not be up to date, but it seems that some quasars are 28 billion light years from here.

174 posted on 02/17/2009 2:45:21 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: Fiji Hill

“I am not an astronomer and my data may not be up to date, but it seems that some quasars are 28 billion light years from here.”

Yes, but they weren’t 28 billion light years away when the light we see from them was emitted. The estimate of their curren distance includes taking the red shift of their spectra into account.


180 posted on 02/17/2009 3:50:06 PM PST by Philo-Junius (One precedent creates another. They soon accumulate and constitute law.)
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To: Fiji Hill; jimmyray
Re:28 bly distance to quasars.

"If the universe is only 14.7 billion years old, how can you possibly see objects that are located tens of billions of light years from the earth?"

The expansion of the universe must be taken into account. The light from the CMB radiation was emitted 379k yrs after the big bang, which occured 13.7b yrs ago. The universe has since expanded to a size whose radius is 1292 times what it was when the CMB radiation was released. That's because of the expansion of space.

The matter involved in producing the CMB rad became the matter that produced the galaxies seen today. The radius to the edge of the visible universse is 46.5b lyrs (light years)from Earth. That radius represents the distance fixed points in space have moved due to expansion of the universe. It's that expansion that reults in distances that are greater than c*t.

181 posted on 02/17/2009 3:53:09 PM PST by spunkets
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