I read that the Hubble telescope could look 13.2 billion years back in time – what would it see if it turned 180 degrees and looked the other way?
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No matter which way you look, you will be looking into the past.
Everything you see in front of you, you see as it was at some point in the past. It takes time for the light from any object to reach your eye.
Say you’re looking at a computer monitor 24 inches in front of you. (using mine as a measure).: The speed of light is ~186,000 miles per second. So it took the light from your monitor ~2 nanoseconds (2 billionths of a second) to reach your eye. You’re seeing it as it was 2 nanoseconds ago.
You see the moon as it was 1.3 seconds ago.
You see the Sun as it was over 8 minutes ago. It could have exploded 4 minutes ago and we will not know it for another 4 minutes.
The further distant an object is, the older the light reaching your eyes from it.
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