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To: RightWhale
I understand it so far, but if we see light from the first momets of the universe right now, then what do we see ten minutes from now?

The part I just dont get is that if we look far enough we see the same moment no matter when we look
74 posted on 10/31/2002 1:22:22 PM PST by Mr. K
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To: Mr. K
Assume that every point in the universe began with the Big Bang, ignore the effect of the inflation phase and assume the start was right after that. That is, the Big Bang was everywhere, even right here, and there is no point that wasn't involved in the Big Bang. Then it becomes simple. If the Big Bang happened 14 gy ago, and if light or gravity travels at 1 lightyear per year since then, then the light or gravity wave we see now from objects 14 billion lightyears distant would have started on their way 14 gy ago. So objects seen as they were at the time of the Big Bang itself would be found in a spherical shell around us of radius 14 billion lightyears. Other objects are visible closer in, but they would be seen doing things in more recent times, not at the time of the Big Bang.

There are other things happening to the time-space manifold that complicate our model, but we can ignore all that for now in this simple picture. Hope that helps get things started.

77 posted on 10/31/2002 2:27:00 PM PST by RightWhale
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