Quote:
Originally Posted by Beestie
Isn't there a new space telescope in the works? ... That would seem to be impossible since, it would not be possible for any two objects to be 13B light years apart 13B years ago.
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That assumes they are not the same source? Welcome to why we need this research and (if America wants to be #1) also need to be doing quantum physics in America. Especially in the past decade, most fundamental research had been leaving the US due to extremists who hate what is not justified by their political agenda.
I believe the other scope is named Webb. Scientists are very excited to have both observatories working simultaneously. Work performed by Hubble can be calibrated against future work by Webb. And other techniques (including combining both images into a super telescope) are expected. The waiting list for access to Hubble has been massive. A traffic jam that Webb alone cannot alleviate.
I believe Webb is still something like four years away. But science expects great things from both scopes in combination with a constellation of other gamma ray, X-ray, and infrared observatories. Basic science that was being killed by some stupid fools who found glory in "Man to Mars".
Value of Hubble was a surprise. Hubble could very well be the greatest science experiment in 20 years in everything from deep space study to sub-atomic quantum physics to understanding the very nature of what Einstein desperately wanted to solve - the fundamental relations of all matter (ie dark matter) and energy (including time and gravity).
Webb is expected to provide a decade improvement on the results from Hubble.
I don't even try to answer a 13billion light year question since even the best of minds have numerous and contrasting theories. We can only go with what we know – follow the evidence. And keep getting more facts.
Meanwhile, based upon what we have learned, Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek concept has held up surprisingly well. Compare that to Jules Verne's Nautilus.