ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

A Guide On Time Travel

Updated on March 29, 2009

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory

I am a frequent time traveler. These eyes of mine have gazed upon the past in awestruck humility. I can view objects and events as recent as a few seconds ago up to an unimaginably long gone scene, thousands upon thousands of bygone years past.

These tableaus I view in a very real way, not through imagination but with true sight. The past is in the present and it is there for you to see right now. It's very simple on the surface, yet to think of it deeply is to rack your brain to the point of pure exhaustion, though I will teach you how to do it.

It's an extremely easy one-step process...you just have to look up.

Moon
Moon
Sun
Sun

Visions of the Recent Past

The Moon

Look up at the Moon. The method of sighting the Moon is by reflection. The Moon does not produce its own light but reflects the light from the Sun. This reflected light takes 1.25 seconds to travel to Earth. Therefore, the Moon that you see is 1.25 seconds in the past.


The Sun

Look up at the Sun (not for very long or you will burn your retinas). Our very own life-giving yellow dwarf star produces its own light by nuclear fusion. That light travels an average distance of 92,960,000 miles (149,600,000 km) to get here to Earth. That is an average distance because the Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle but more elliptical. Therefore the distance between the Sun and Earth vary throughout the year. So, the average time it takes for light to reach the Earth is 8.23 minutes. The Sun that you see is over 8 minutes in the past.

Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri
Andromeda
Andromeda

Closer (Recent) Neighbors

Alpha Centauri

The nearest visible star to our Sun is not actually a single star at all but a binary star system. Alpha Centauri A and B and their companion Proxima Centauri appear as a single star to the naked eye. They are approximately 4.3 light years away. Of course, this means you are looking over four years in the past when you gaze upon them. George W. Bush was being inaugurated for his second term at that time (this is written in March 2009).

Andromeda Galaxy

Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the farthest heavenly body visible to the naked eye. It consists of over one trillion stars and is about 220,000 light years in diameter. At approximately 2.3 million light years away, it is the closest galaxy to our own Milky Way. So when you look up at the fuzzy image of Andromeda, you are looking 2.3 million years into the past. When that light first started it's trek to our curious eyes the mammoth, saber-tooth tiger and Homo habilis (an early form of human) roamed the Earth.

Alas, our sister galaxy is not so friendly. It is on a collision course with the Milky Way. We only have 3-5 billion years to prepare for our doom.


The Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope

With a Little Help from Hubble

This is where is gets complicated; where space and time merge, turning your mind into mush when trying to compute the astronomical data. Here is the end result though:

With the help of Hubble, you can view the very beginnings of the universe which we currently reside; thus taking us on a journey billions of years into the past.

Yes, it is possible to see the universal afterbirth of the Big Bang.

Interesting Facts

  • One Light Year = 5,878,630,000,000 miles (9,460,730,472,580 km)
  • Light travels at 186,282 miles per second (299,793 kmps)
  • To go from one edge of the Milky Way to the other would take 100,000 years traveling at light speed.

 

Hubble Ultra Deep Field
Hubble Ultra Deep Field

In the Beginning...

The deepest images ever taken of the universe were shot by the Hubble back in 2003.

The Hubble focused its lens on a small portion of the night sky (13 millionth of the whole) and opened its shutter, creating a time exposure. The results of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) were spectacular. Over 10,000 galaxies are visible in just that one small portion of the sky.

The images take us on a time travel expedition of 13 billion years in the past, 400 million years after the Big Bang (the relative infancy of the universe). Through these Hubble images we can observe the formations of stars and galaxies, bringing us to the brink of the very beginning of time and space.  Simply amazing!

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)