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What does the night sky really look like?

When we look at the night sky, we see the stars in the past - the further the star, the further into the past it is. As everything is moving about, many of our favorite stars have probably moved vast distances, since emitting the light we now see. Has anyone ever made a map of where everything is right now?

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  • Asked by BigJon
  • on 2011-02-18 11:26:19
  • Member status
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Categories: Our universe.

Tags: Space, Timedistancetravel, maps.

 

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Jon-Richfield says:

There is no "right now" in general. From our point of view the stars that we see we are as we see them right now, no matter how far away they may be; that is to say the "right now" that we agree on because we are close together and not moving much relative to each other. Observers on another star would agree with us about a few other stars in particular positions and speeds relative to both us and them,  but they would differ with us  about our relative timing for all other stars. For instance they also would disagree with us about whether some events took place before or after certain other events.

And they could be right.

And so might we be.

Tricky business. Try reading some elementary works on relativity. Skip the industrial strength stuff!

 

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Tags: Space, Timedistancetravel, maps.

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posted on 2011-02-18 11:41:45 | Report abuse


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njrking1 says:

from our reference frame the average colour of the universe is beige (source: QI so accuracy fallible in my opinion), though don't quote me on this.

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Tags: Space, Timedistancetravel, maps.

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posted on 2012-01-30 11:35:59 | Report abuse


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