Looking Into The Past

The laws of physics do not rule out the possibility of time travel. However, for time travel to work, we would need to have a time machine already in place for us to go back to. Therefore, most physicists agree that even if time travel is made possible in the future, we will never be able to travel back before the time machine was created.

This means that, whichever way you look at it, we will never be able to see the past other than through videos and films. Except for the fact that we all see the past every single day.

When we see the sun, we are seeing something as it looked 8 minutes before. When we see stars we are seeing things as they were thousands or millions of years before. In fact, we are often looking at things that no longer exist.

For some, this is a simple, ordinary fact, but for others this is fascinating. And for those who have an interest in seeing the universe as it was millions of years ago, astronomical telescopes can offer the perfect view of the past.

If we looked far enough into space, we would be able to see the aftermath of the big bang (although, for the majority of us trying to wrap our minds around the fact that the big bang apparently happened not in a single place, but everywhere, could well make our heads explode) and therefore the amount we can learn by simply looking out into space is astounding. Obviously, home telescopes are never going to let us look back far enough to see the likes of the big bang, but the amount of the past that we can see is quite unbelievable.

Therefore, if you want your very own time machine, all you really need is your own astronomical telescopes.

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