The stunning new photos of the pillars of creation are made even more stunning when you consider the massive scale – 5 light years tall, 6500 light years away. How do we get photos of something that takes 6500 years for the light/image to reach us ?
EDIT: ya’ll I feel silly now after having a day to think about this. I’ll blame my initial confusion on sleep deprivation. Goodnight.
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The photons that we are picking up were released and sent our direction 6500 ly ago. They’ve been traveling and traveling for all that time. And when they get here, 6500 years later the telescope picks them up.
Technically EVERYTHING you see happened in the past. Even this reply took time for the photons from you monitor to get to your eye. In this case it’s nearly instantaneous since you’re so close and light travels so fast. But technically, you’re viewing the past.
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