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Varsect t1_j6570x0 wrote

Reply to comment by ChrisARippel in If you could instantaneously place a space telescope at any desired distance (LYs), from any planet/galaxy etc., where would it be and what would you be documenting? And for what purpose? by kennyarsen

Why tho. It would literally take information to travel 46 billion years. Pretty sure quadrillions of generations could live in that timescale.

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ChrisARippel t1_j65hpbc wrote

Thanks for asking.

When the OP stated instantaneously placing a space telescope light years away, I assume this also meant information would be instantaneously sent between Earth and the telescope.

I would place the telescope at the edge of the observable universe for two reasons.

  • Test the cosmological principle that the universe actually is isotropic and homogeneous everywhere, inside and beyond the observable universe.

  • Hopefully, compare the same galaxies at different stages of life. The Milky Way is estimated to have started 160 million years after the Big Bang. It would be interesting to compare early images of the Milky Way from that space telescope with what we see today from Earth.

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Varsect t1_j65jp7n wrote

Oh, but then you'd need a lot of observations in a lot of observable universes to truly confirm isotropy in our universe.Also, the Milky Way image would most likely be redshifted into oblivion, and that's not even talking resolution, but thanks for this answer.

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ChrisARippel t1_j669ogv wrote

Observations from the space telescope would be looking to disprove isotropy from that location. If the space telescope doesn't disprove isotropy from that location, this is at least partial confirmation. Similar to Eddington's 1919 eclipse test of Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

Milky Way may well be invisible to the space telescope, but other galaxies may well be visible from both directions.

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