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Posted by: Evie
Posted on: Thu, Feb 03, 2011, 9:37 am CST

I talked to him on skype, he says he thinks he knows the answer, but will verfiy and get back to me.

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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Thu, Feb 03, 2011, 8:01 am CST

I sent him an e-mail earlier this week asking if he wanted to post on Monday and he hasn't replied back.

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Posted by: Evie
Posted on: Thu, Feb 03, 2011, 6:40 am CST

@bestill said he can answer this though it's not his field of expertese

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Posted by: Kelly Oakes
Posted on: Thu, Feb 03, 2011, 4:25 am CST

I'm doing a cosmology course at the moment that I think may touch on this kind of thing, but I don't think it's been discussed yet. My understanding is that it's because space itself is expanding, but I could be wrong! I'll have a look into it and come back to you if I find a better answer...

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Posted by: Evie
Posted on: Wed, Feb 02, 2011, 3:25 pm CST

I thought his question was how did we end up here prior to the light, as it moves at c and we do not. So no matter how much space/time expanded, light should always be there before matter. But I'm confusing myself here. I only took one astronomy class at CMU. And it didn't cover this cool stuff.

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Posted by: Thomas Joseph
Posted on: Wed, Feb 02, 2011, 3:21 pm CST

I think it has to do with the fact that we're all moving (since the universe is expanding), and we're not stationary. For example, if a car moved away from us at 55mph when we were stopped, in an hour they'd be 55 miles away. If we traveled in the opposite direction though at 55mph too, in an hour we'd be 110 miles away. IIRC, the rate at which we're traveling is less than the speed of light such that the light will eventually get to us.

Of course, I could be wrong.

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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Wed, Feb 02, 2011, 12:13 pm CST

That's a thought, Evie.  In the mean time I'll send the questioner over to Astronomy cast to see if he can find some info there

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Posted by: Psycasm
Posted on: Tue, Feb 01, 2011, 4:57 pm CST

I'm pretty sure Astronomy Cast (podcast, see iTunes) has answered this question at some point. I can't be more specific, but a quick search of their show notes should narrow the search down to only a few episodes

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Posted by: Evie
Posted on: Tue, Feb 01, 2011, 2:20 pm CST

Excellent question. I dunno. I wonder if @BenStill or @Astrogeek03 would want to write about this.

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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Thu, Feb 03, 2011, 9:37 am CST

I got a facebook question the other day.  Could either of you write a post on this?

"I'm puzzled, please unpuzzle me.

When astronomers look in to deep space they can look back in to time, billions of years. Now I can understand it can take light a while to get here, but how did WE get here considering we originated in the big bang just like all the stuff created whose light reaches is many years later?"

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