How far back in the past can we possibly see?

Question

I read an article that stated that some astronomers saw some objects that existed roughly 500 million years after the big bang. Since the universe is roughly 13 billion years old is there a point in that exists where we will never be able to see that light? For example if our opitcal technology was unlimited would we truly be able to see the big bang? One note I do understand the fact that light travels at a certain speed and that after the big bang the universe expanded at an amazing rate. just having trouble wrapping my mind around this for some reason.

Answer 1

We don't know yet.
As a matter of fact, there is a special Space Telescope due to be launched in 2013 to find out.
The James Webb Space Telescope is specifically designed to search for the earliest galaxies. It is designed to search in the infrared spectrum ( even though it has some capabilities in the visual spectrum also ), because things that ancient would have their light so far red shifted that it would no longer fall within the visible spectrum.
And, BTW, the expansion is still continuing. Scientists are arguing about whether it is still speeding up or not.

Adolph

Answer 2

You are suffering from a common misconception about the Big Bang, as are the other answerers in this thread. The Big Bang was NOT an explosion that happened somewhere in space, sending galaxies in all directions. It was not an explosion at all.

We routinely observe the Big Bang directly every day. So do you when you see static on your TV, as some percentage of that is caused by cosmic background radiation.

Space is uniformly filled with galaxies everywhere, and always has been. There are no void places or any center to it. The distances between the galaxies are increasing, however, because space itself is expanding between them. In other words, more real estate is constantly being created. The universe remains uniformly filled with stuff, but the distances between things continue to expand.

So if there's more real estate today, there was less yesterday. In fact, there was a time when there was very little space at all, and because the same amount of matter had to fit in a smaller space, it was hotter.

So the "Big Bang" wasn't a bang at all; it was just the hot state of the early universe. It was hot and dense everywhere, so everywhere you look, in every direction, 13.7 billion light years away you will see that hot dense state as the Cosmic Microwave Background. The CMB is the radiation of the hot eaerly universe: it IS the Big Bang. You will also see galaxies everywhere in every direction, so long as you're not looking so far away that galaxies haven't formed yet, since they too form everywhere in space.

Answer 3

We have already photographed that point. It is called 'Deep Field South'. It was taken by Hubble not too long ago. This is virtually a picture of the moment after the Big Bang. It looks like a picture of a bunch of stars on any ordinary night - but upon closer looking, you can see that the stars you see are actually galaxies. You can google it.
Here's another concept to try and grab. If it is the very farthest place in the universe, the picture must be 2 dimensional. It can't have any more depth.

Answer 4

If per Big bang theory masses expand radially,Then so would light dissipate in the same manner.
Hence we would have to conclude that light radiated out wardly from Galaxie s would be for ever lost without returning to its sources.
Therefore we would not be able to see those light rays from the past.
Unless the Big Bang theory is doubly wrong. Then another scenario would take place.And the aging determining system of the universe would be flawed.
In that case there would be another explanation of what cosmic radiation stems from.
If we apply Einstein time dilation formula; the rest time would probably be no more then six millenium.

Answer 5

Ian Ridpath is the author of a number of books on ASTRONOMY of which I am owner of three. In his texts
he states that with our present level of optical and radio telescopes we can see objects at a maximum distance
of 40 Billion Light Years in all directions from Earth.
Beyond that distance our highly developed equipment just
kind of craps out, failing to give us any more useful
information. Some day soon maybe new software or tech
developments will be announced that extend our "seeable"
distances out to maybe 60 Billion Light Years or so. That will
be really neat.

Yes, it is a huge distance and hard to grasp in Earth Bound terms.

Answer 6

IF, and this is a big IF, we somehow get optical technology far enough outside our universe, with a helluva lot of powerful technology, then yes. However, the light has had 13 billion years to travel, and there might be some quality issues (What with the universe expanding, so maybe interference).

Answer 7

Most of that is just some educated guess ,so there is room for all kinds of errors.The distance is huge to the point that we may never be able to communicate with any body.

Answer 8

We can't. Its all made up due to the lack of imagination.