When we look at a galaxy 93 billion light years away?

Question

When we look at a galaxy 93 billion light years away which is the furthest we have seen, we are looking at a particular galaxy as it was maybe 13 billion years ago, so when we look at a galaxy that is 45 billion light years away we are looking at a galaxy as it was maybe 6 billion years ago.

Is it possible that we are looking at the same galaxy at 2 different points of time?

Answer 1

No, you will not see the same galaxy twice (apart from some very specific example where a distant massive galaxy refracts the light of a more distant object (called gravitational lensing), in this example you generally end up with 4 duplicates of the more distant galaxy!

An object that is 93 Billion Light years away - is as it was 93 Billion Light years ago.

The moon is 1.25 Light seconds away (so we always see it as it was 1.25 seconds ago).

The sun is 8 Light minutes away, furthest object visible to the naked eye is M31 and we see that as it was 2.2 Million years ago (it's distance is 2.2 Million Light years away).

Cheers

Ant

Answer 2

Actually, if the galaxy is 93 billion light years away, you are seeing as it was 93 billion years ago, not 13 billion years ago. A light year is the distance light travels in a year. The simple answer to your question is no. You can't see the same thing in two different places or times no matter how far away it is. The fact that you are seeing it 'now' means that the light that left it 93 billion years ago has just arrived on earth. Light that left it 50 billion years ago (when it was nearer) reached us 50 billion years ago and cannot be seen any more.

Answer 3

funny things happen when galaxsees do things at relativistic speeds, but this isn't one of them. however, the illusion of super-luminal velocity is well known. look it up.

yes, your numbers are wrong. but you already know that.

Answer 4

no. here is an example. if we look through a telescope n we c a galaxy thats 100 million light years away, we r seein wut that galaxy lookd like 100 million years ago. so, for all we kno, that galaxy is obsolete. oh, n we can not look into a telescope n c a galaxy that is 93 billion light years away.

Answer 5

You guys are missing the jist of the question. It is an interesting question.

Can we see same object in two different places in two different points in time? This assumes that the object moved at hyper light speeds. If I remember correctly, right after the Big Bang the universe did expand at greater than light speeds. But the galaxies did not exist at that time. When the galaxies and matter started to form, the universe expansion slowed down to sub-light speeds.

So, no, we can't see the  same galaxy in 2 different places/times.

Answer 6

no

93 billion light years is pretty  much the edge of the universe

Answer 7

i understand what you mean, and if you chose different times than the one you did in that question, the answer maybe yes. galaxies are probably always moving and expanding/getting smaller so maybe yes. apparently our solar system is moving as a whole, just as the other solar systems and stars are supposedly.

and to D.J (person 2nd from top), there isn't an edge of the universe. how do you know how big it is, have you travelled there? this isn't the truman show where he reaches the end of the lake and there is a wall and a door for us to walk out of.

Answer 8

I think the most distant galaxy we have observed is about 13,000,000,000 (billion) light years away.  This means that the light produced by the galaxy was produced 13,000,000,000 years ago, at a spot 13,000,000,000 light years away.

Under most conditions, we only have one opportunity to observe such a galaxy, and we will not see it someplace else in the cosmos at some other point in its history.

So, no, we are not looking at the same galaxy twice.

In the 13,000,000,000 years it took the light to reach us, however, the galaxy has moved, and it is now someplace else.

Answer 9

  Any galaxy beyond 6 billion light years away does not exist today.

Answer 10

We have not seen any galaxies 93 billion light years away, or 45 billion.

The farthest things we can, in principle, see are about fifteen billion (that is, 15,000 million) light years away.

The most distant thing we have actually seen and identified is a massive burst of gamma radiation about 7,500,000,000 light years away.  The Swift satellite detected it in March, 2008.