Friday, August 12, 2011
Why cant our telescopes see further than the Hubble Ultra Deep Field?
Your question is a tad misleading. The issue of being unable to resolve images further out is one of technology, but that doesn't only apply to distance, indeed we could build (we are building the Webb space telescope, something of a successor in the infrared spectrum with a much larger objective mirror) a larger telescope than hubble, and thus gather more light from whatever we observe with it, thus gaining higher resolution. But the question of why we can't see further than we do, not just without clarity, but not at all, is much more interesting. Because the universe is expanding, and its expansion is accelerating, points very distant from us move away from us with great speed. The speed is so great at truly vast distances that the objects move away faster than the speed of light (the expansion of space is the one thing known to outpace light) and can never reach us for observation. Indeed, if Hubble's constant (the recession rate per distance) remains, well, constant, eventually fewer galaxies will be visible than can be observed now.
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