strugglz t1_j9ld8d7 wrote on February 22, 2023 at 8:33 PM

Reply to comment by TheOzarkWizard in James Webb telescope detects evidence of ancient ‘universe breaker’ galaxies by Lakerlion

According to the article way in the distant past when the universe was about 3% of it's current age, which is about 440 million years old. Or 14.3 billion years ago.

[deleted] t1_j9mrc3k wrote on February 23, 2023 at 2:11 AM

Then our solar system is in that shot somewhere.

IFUCKINGLOVEMETH t1_j9nz616 wrote on February 23, 2023 at 9:39 AM

That's not how that works. When we're 'looking into the past' with telescopes, we're not viewing our own position from the outside. We're viewing a different part of the universe as it was long ago.

On top of that our solar system is probably less than 5 billion years old.

[deleted] t1_j9oqbu6 wrote on February 23, 2023 at 2:25 PM

But our galaxy was out there at that time. Everything is moving, traveling farther and farther apart.

IFUCKINGLOVEMETH t1_j9orf5o wrote on February 23, 2023 at 2:32 PM

I think your misconception is because you imagine that the universe has a central point it's expanding away from, sort of like the way a firecracker begins at a point then explodes outward from that central point. But that's NOT how the universe expands.

Unlike a firework exploding outward from a central point, the universe has NO central point that every galaxy is moving away from. They're all moving away from eachother, but not from a center. In that sense, you could consider ANY point in the universe to be the center, since every point in the universe is moving away from every other point in the universe.

I hope this video can clarify for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOLHtIWLkHg

[deleted] t1_j9ortwm wrote on February 23, 2023 at 2:35 PM

Well that's what we were taught. That the big bang happened from a tiny molecule, smaller than the tip of a pin.

IFUCKINGLOVEMETH t1_j9osglj wrote on February 23, 2023 at 2:40 PM

Teachers use simplified analogies to explain concepts to children in terms of things they already understand.

So while it might make sense to explain to a child what the Big Bang is in terms of something like a firework, the analogy is very flawed if you want to understand how cosmic inflation works in a more in-depth way.

My previous comment contains a youtube link, I think the video should clear things up for you. Here it is again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOLHtIWLkHg