I don't understand why this is such big news. There are pictures of galaxies that go back to less than a billion years after the big bang, i.e about 13 billion years. Here's one: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4756. Now that is fricking amazing. There are better photos, I just did a quick Google to get this one.
When the light left those galaxies/quasars/whatever 13 billion years ago, the universe was much smaller than it is now. So that 13 billion light year radius sphere surrounding us was only a 500 million light year sphere at the time, yet the light has taken 13 billion year to get here. (Actually, the universe is not really a sphere. It's some warped dimensional thing that I can't possibly understand.)
So what's the big deal about 1 billion light years?
I blogged this a while back -- http://www.connectedpixel.com/blog/ergonomic/stand up. The fatigue from standing is outweighed by carpal tunnel pain from sitting (read the blog if this does not make sense). It's also easier to stay awake while standing.
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I don't understand why this is such big news. There are pictures of galaxies that go back to less than a billion years after the big bang, i.e about 13 billion years. Here's one: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4756. Now that is fricking amazing. There are better photos, I just did a quick Google to get this one.
When the light left those galaxies/quasars/whatever 13 billion years ago, the universe was much smaller than it is now. So that 13 billion light year radius sphere surrounding us was only a 500 million light year sphere at the time, yet the light has taken 13 billion year to get here. (Actually, the universe is not really a sphere. It's some warped dimensional thing that I can't possibly understand.)
So what's the big deal about 1 billion light years?
I blogged this a while back -- http://www.connectedpixel.com/blog/ergonomic/stand up. The fatigue from standing is outweighed by carpal tunnel pain from sitting (read the blog if this does not make sense). It's also easier to stay awake while standing.