It's nice to meet you, Dr. Lan! I'm Dr. John Smith. John works just fine for me - not sure what my, well, Other Self is called yet, but I'd love to get talking about ancient history - any sort. All sorts!
[He grins warmly, and settles in his seat.] Oh no no, not literally that - well, I suppose it sort of feels like we're living in a science fiction setting, don't it? But no, that's not what I do. It works like - so okay.
[John adjusts his glasses and sits forward, clearly getting into teaching mode, but he's smiling. He's not going to talk down to Doctor Lan; they're both academics in different fields, after all!]
Light takes time to travel long distances, just like a car takes time to travel long distances. It takes sunlight eight minutes and twenty seconds to reach the Earth, so we are always seeing the sun as it was about eight and a half minutes in the past. Now think about the light of the farthest observable star - that would be a star we call Icarus - it has a long science-y name, but I'll spare you the details. That star is five billion light years from Earth, meaning that it takes five billion years for its light to reach the Hubble Telescope. That means, we are picking up light that was first transmitted five billion years ago! Brilliant, isn't it? [He looks utterly delighted.] It means that we're able to observe stars and galaxies as they were closer to the time of the Big Bang, which can give us insight into how things were during the formative years - or what we speculate were the formative years - of the universe! It's entirely likely that the actual star of Icarus burned out eons ago, and its light is still transmitting to us here from all the way over there in another galaxy!
[It takes a minute for John's delight in his star conversation to realize what Dr. Lan just had just said. He pauses, and lets out a breath.]
Hold on, did you say, 'portal to another world'? Joined you on an - You went on a full blown expedition to another world, possibly another planet, and I missed it! I've only been aware for a week and a half!
no subject
[He grins warmly, and settles in his seat.] Oh no no, not literally that - well, I suppose it sort of feels like we're living in a science fiction setting, don't it? But no, that's not what I do. It works like - so okay.
[John adjusts his glasses and sits forward, clearly getting into teaching mode, but he's smiling. He's not going to talk down to Doctor Lan; they're both academics in different fields, after all!]
Light takes time to travel long distances, just like a car takes time to travel long distances. It takes sunlight eight minutes and twenty seconds to reach the Earth, so we are always seeing the sun as it was about eight and a half minutes in the past. Now think about the light of the farthest observable star - that would be a star we call Icarus - it has a long science-y name, but I'll spare you the details. That star is five billion light years from Earth, meaning that it takes five billion years for its light to reach the Hubble Telescope. That means, we are picking up light that was first transmitted five billion years ago! Brilliant, isn't it? [He looks utterly delighted.] It means that we're able to observe stars and galaxies as they were closer to the time of the Big Bang, which can give us insight into how things were during the formative years - or what we speculate were the formative years - of the universe! It's entirely likely that the actual star of Icarus burned out eons ago, and its light is still transmitting to us here from all the way over there in another galaxy!
[It takes a minute for John's delight in his star conversation to realize what Dr. Lan just had just said. He pauses, and lets out a breath.]
Hold on, did you say, 'portal to another world'? Joined you on an - You went on a full blown expedition to another world, possibly another planet, and I missed it! I've only been aware for a week and a half!