Are We Seeing Objects in the Universe Today as They Appeared in the Past?

-- Manasi | October 13, 2020

Question:

HELLO SIR,
MY QUERY: EVERYTHING IS SO FAR AWAY FROM OUR OWN LITTLE PLANET THAT LIGHT FROM STARS AND GALAXIES CAN TAKE BILLIONS OF YEARS TO REACH US- SO WE SEE THE UNIVERSE AS IT LOOKED BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO. SO THEN, THE CHANGES TAKING PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE, WERE THEY TOO SUPPOSED TO BE HAPPENING BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO? OR ARE WE SEEING THEM AS THEY WERE A LONG TIME AGO?

THANK YOU,
MANASI

-- Manasi

Answer:

This question has been answered before on this blog.  See the answer to Are We Seeing Stars as They Were in the Past?  Due to the limits of the propagation of information via light, we see things in the universe today as they appeared in the past.

-- Jeff Mangum