[Zak Roy Yoballa]

Okay, so it isn't exactly traveling back in time but hear me out.

While looking at the moon last night with my eldest daughter, she made a comment about how far away it is etc. etc.   That made me do some thinking on how we are using the Hubble Telescope to see objects very far away.  Please note that I am not the first to point this out, my astronomy prof, other students and myself discussed this a bit.  With uot further rambling please consider this:

1.  When we look at stars, we are seeing light emited by that star sometime in the past.

2.  The length of time it takes for the light to reach the earth is also the "distance" astronomers use.  For example is a star is 3 light years away from earth, the light we see is three years old.

3.  The Hubble can look farther away from earth than any other device thus far

4.  Therefore the Hubble  lets us see farther back in time than ever before

5.  Theoretically, if we look farther and farther away, we should be able to see the Big Bang.


Chew on that for a while, some of the implications are mind numbing


ZRY 

[The_Seeker]

But then, what happens if the Big Bang is too close (relatively) for the distance requiered to look back enough?

[Moloch]

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[prezhorusin04]

I don't personally see Hubble as being able to actually look back far enough to the point of the big bang, but the concept is interesting. We can see remnants of the Big Bang, but looking through space won't actually show us the Big Bang of the Milky Way as it's unfolding.

More than likely there are multiple Big Bangs, taking place in cycles within every galaxy. It might be a balancing motion of Big Bangs and Crunches, taking place through massive super massive stars at the center of each galaxy, and the Black Hole that forms through it's death. Each galaxy might go through trillions upon trillions of years before it totally 'burns out', though this is through the measure of the human understanding of years.

There might be many 'Big Bangs' out there, we are just dealing with such a small time frame of reference that we cannot witness any taking place at this very moment. Our notion of the Big Bang, of String Theory, of Black Holes, is only part of a much larger galactic cycle, IMO..

Also, for a very long time after the Big Bang, there was no light, the universe was opaque. So the best we can hope for using this route is to see the very first light emitting objects - or creatures.

[Zak Roy Yoballa]

Whether it be the Hubble or some other telescope, the thought was really like Big P stated, If we can look far enough away we will be able to see long enough ago.  Therefore see the Big Bang.  Kinda neat I think.   It really gets interesting when you start thinking about time travel... if we can send information electronically, could we send information to the past via some other energy.   

Hmmm, makes me start thinking all kinds of stuff....  send a note to my self to go for it and kiss the girl or NOT bet on the Browns winning a game or something shallow like that!

ZRY