How does the light travel time for a nearby nebula in the Milky Way contrast with light from a high-redshift galaxy?
Answer
The nebula takes thousands of years, while the high-redshift light takes billions of years.
Observing objects within our own Milky Way, such as a nebula, results in light travel times that are relatively short, often spanning mere thousands of years, yielding a nearly current view of that object. In stark contrast, light from high-redshift galaxies has traveled for billions of years, originating when the universe was in its infancy. This massive difference in lookback time necessitates corrections for vastly different cosmic conditions when comparing data from nearby objects versus the most distant observed structures.
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