From: rrschulz@cris.com   
      
   DTWI,   
      
   I don't know what a "plonker" is but...   
      
      
   You are correct. Light travels at a finite speed. Viewing more distant   
   stars and galaxies is implicitly viewing the more distant past. This   
   is an advantage in that it allows one to test hypotheses about how the   
   universe evolved from its origins. If all we could see was the current   
   state of the universe, it would me much harder to figure out how   
   things have evolved over cosmic timescales.   
      
   The universe is a little under 14 billion years old. The universe is   
   much bigger than 14 billion light-years in diameter. We cannot see it   
   all. Ever. (Unless we figure out how to base a technology on some   
   of the solutions to general relativity that do not rule out   
   superluminal travel. Then maybe we could travel beyond the so-called   
   light horizon of the portion of the universe centered on Earth. Our   
   current expectation is that we'd find things over there pretty much   
   the same as they are here, at least as far as star, galaxy, cluster   
   and super-cluster formation goes.)   
      
   The oldest and hence most distantly originating photons (light) we can   
   detect is the so-called Cosmic Microwave Background. Studying it   
   carefully has helped refine theories of the origin of the universe.   
      
   This is all elementary stuff (otherwise I could not tell you about it,   
   'cause I'm an amateur). There are many texts and on-line resources.   
      
   Libraries, science teachers and Google are your friends. If you're not   
   already familiar with them, become so!   
      
   Randall Schulz   
      
      
   download the whole internet wrote:   
      
   > OK, this is just a thought but... If the nearest star is 4 light   
   > years away then we are seeing light which is 4 years old?? So what   
   > we are looking at is the past??? Is this right? Or am I a plonker??   
   > If this is right.. then somewhere out there in the universe there   
   > is light from millions of years ago showing how the world began???   
   > Would this work???   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)