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When we view an object in space, we are notobserving it "as is" we are observing it "as it was". What we are seeing, is the light that was emitted at that time.

For example: A galaxy is 1,000,000 light years away. When we view it, we are seeing it as it was 1,000,000 years ago, because that is how long light has taken to get to us.

The galaxy may well have been swallowed by a giant mutant turtle 999,998 years ago, but we will not know for another year.

So we are seeing objects in space as that were, relative to their distances from us, not what they are. Eg looking back in time.

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Q: Studying distant galaxies is described as looking back into the past What does this mean?
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Yes.


How can you see the past looking through a telescope at a distant object?

Scientist investigate the early universe by observing objects that are extremely far away in space.Beause it takes time for light to travel through space,looking through a telescope is like looking back in time one travels. Looking at distant galaxies evolve through time and perhaps what caused them to form in the first place.Scientiiist have already found some very strange looking objects in the Early universe.


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Yes it is true. we actually look in the past when looking at distant galaxies. It is because the light emitted by the billions of stars in the galaxies take thousands of millions of years to reach our eyes. So whatever we are looking in the sky has taken place in past. What is happening in the present, we will only know after the light emitted from the object reaches our eyes.


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The speed of light is not infinite. Light takes time to travel from distant galaxies to our eyes here on Earth. If a galaxy is 1 billion light years away, it has taken 1 billion years for the light emitted by said galaxy to reach us here, so (obviously) we are seeing the light emitted 1 billion years ago. In a sense, we are seeing 1 billion years into the past at the light emitted by that galaxy.


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