The Evolving Earth
The finite speed of light is a mind-blowing 186,000 miles per second. But when you think of the size of our universe, light takes a lot of time to reach the most distant objects. For instance, the nearest star to Earth is our own sun, 93 million miles away. When you glance at the sun, you’re seeing it as it was eight minutes ago because of of the time it takes its light to reach us. To put this in perspective, astronomer Dr. Michelle Thaller, assistant director of science communication at NASA, tells us that the farthest we can see into the universe through our advance telescopes is billions of years away. “You’re actually looking back at light that’s coming to you today before the Earth even formed,” she says. “It is quite breathtaking. We can see a distance that corresponds to a time about 400,000 years after the Big Bang.” Thaller expands the conversation in this edition of Big Think.
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