On Wed, Sep 18, 2024 at 2:01 AM Alan Grayson <[email protected]> wrote:
*> I can't see how anything can recede at velocity > c and remain within > our Observable Universe. * *We can observe a very distant galaxy even though it is now moving away from us faster than the speed of light because we are not observing the galaxy as it is now, we are observing it as it was 13 billion years ago; and back then it was NOT moving away from us faster than the speed of light. Thus even though we can see the galaxy we could NEVER travel to it, not even if we could move at the speed of light, not even in an infinite number of years. You can object to the definition of "observable universe" if you want to but remember we can NOT observe ANYTHING as it is now. It takes a finite amount of time for light to go from the tip of your nose to your eye, so even that observation is in the past.* *Our observational horizon is shrinking, in about 1 trillion years we will not be able to see any galaxies except those in our local group, and they would probably all have merged into a single large globular galaxy by then. So if there are any astronomers around in 1 trillion years they will incorrectly conclude what astronomers in the early 20th century concluded, the entire universe consists of just one galaxy surrounded by an infinity of nothingness. That is to say surrounded by an infinite boundless homogeneity. * John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis> ius -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv1AHD9TU1MNYYqCaoC9meimaamCnCh3zZE%2BpeXXu7w6%3DQ%40mail.gmail.com.
