richardbarley.com

One of my favourite books ever is “A Short History or Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson. I have always been fairly into science, space and all that kind of stuff, and this book served to really fuel my interest. I’ve read it about 4 times now and each time I seem to find even more “Wow…that’s amazing!” moments.

The first few chapters of the book deal with how the universe came into being and where it is going. This is one of the big things that really gives me headaches. The fact that everything we are seeing up there in the night sky is history. The light from that star has taken thousands and thousands of years to reach us, and, in fact, the star may not even exist any more.

We’re a long way from Doctor Who-style travel through space and time, but, in our own little way, we all can travel back in time just by looking up at the stars. Each night tells a different story of the history of the universe. Take this example from the Science blog “The Frontal Cortex“:

It’s a photo of clouds of molecular hydrogen, taken by the Hubble space telescope not too long ago. However, thanks to a nearby supernova, these incredible clouds were actually destroyed around 6,000 years ago, and no longer exist. Thanks to the sluggish speed of light, we won’t be able to see them for another thousand years or so, only to disappear several thousand years later.

It’s a subject that gets me thinking and my brain soon starts to hurt - but in a good way.

[The Frontal Cortex : Old Light]