Late night thought...
Discussion
So I'm up at this time, rediscovering my childhood love of our lovely universe and how fascinating it is
Then I had a thought. If I was on a planet within the Andromeda galaxy, observing Earth, I'd be observing events from around 2.5 million years ago. This is common knowledge.
But, the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy are closing in on each other, so the distance the light has to travel is shorter.
Does this mean, in theory, whatever I saw happening on Earth, my view would actually be in fast forward to some degree?
Then I had a thought. If I was on a planet within the Andromeda galaxy, observing Earth, I'd be observing events from around 2.5 million years ago. This is common knowledge.
But, the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy are closing in on each other, so the distance the light has to travel is shorter.
Does this mean, in theory, whatever I saw happening on Earth, my view would actually be in fast forward to some degree?
My thoughts where based on me already being on a planet in the Andromeda galaxy, observing Earth.
The Milky Way and Andromeda are currently on a collision course with each other, therefore, both will be travelling very very fast I'd assume, but not quite speed of light fast.
I don't think the "running towards something" analogy works, as that is very slow, so there'd be a tiny difference in time passed but you'd barely notice it.
I was wondering if the speed of the galaxies closing speed would mean that you'd be viewing whatever happened on Earth 2.5 million years ago, but say 10% quicker than it actually happened.
To me it makes sense, as light going between 2 fixed points would have a constant rate, but if you are moving towards the source at great speed, wouldn't you be receiving the light earlier, and thus seeing it in fast forward?
Think of a boat going up a river. The faster it goes, the more water will pass it by, so the river will look like it's passing by faster.
The Milky Way and Andromeda are currently on a collision course with each other, therefore, both will be travelling very very fast I'd assume, but not quite speed of light fast.
I don't think the "running towards something" analogy works, as that is very slow, so there'd be a tiny difference in time passed but you'd barely notice it.
I was wondering if the speed of the galaxies closing speed would mean that you'd be viewing whatever happened on Earth 2.5 million years ago, but say 10% quicker than it actually happened.
To me it makes sense, as light going between 2 fixed points would have a constant rate, but if you are moving towards the source at great speed, wouldn't you be receiving the light earlier, and thus seeing it in fast forward?
Think of a boat going up a river. The faster it goes, the more water will pass it by, so the river will look like it's passing by faster.
It's more confusing the more I think about it because I suppose it depends on how we process the light?
For example,
You are on a conveyor belt and along the way there a photos from a film hanging up. Each photo displays just 1 frame. So if you speed up the belt, when you get to passing around 24 photos a second, you should be seeing the film in real time, as intended. But if you go even faster, you'll see it sped up. E.g. Fast forwarding a video tape
But...
Usually if you increase the frames per second, time actually slows down as you are collecting more information within a shorter space of time. E.g. slow motion cameras
For example,
You are on a conveyor belt and along the way there a photos from a film hanging up. Each photo displays just 1 frame. So if you speed up the belt, when you get to passing around 24 photos a second, you should be seeing the film in real time, as intended. But if you go even faster, you'll see it sped up. E.g. Fast forwarding a video tape
But...
Usually if you increase the frames per second, time actually slows down as you are collecting more information within a shorter space of time. E.g. slow motion cameras
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