The Universe Revealed is my attempt to discuss more thoroughly the main questions that we humans should ask about our existence, our universe and our place in it. These are mostly my thoughts on science, religion and philosophy as it applies to the...
I've already discussed Einstein's theory of Relativity and how time and space are connected. Also, I've discussed how photons play a role in electromagnetism. There are several things about photons that are just plain crazy.
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One of the tenants of Einstein's relativity is the fact that the faster you go the slower your time appears to an observer not traveling at your speed. As you approach the speed of light, time really slows down and at the speed of light, time stops. However, you wouldn't be aware of this effect. To you time would be normal.
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As you know, photons travel at the speed of light. Guess what this implies? Yes, photons never age. Time for them never changes. That means that if you were to look in a telescope at a galaxy that's 13.5 billion light years away, only a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, the photon impacting on your retina is at the same time as when it was created 13.5 billion years ago. That's because it travels at the speed of light where time stops.
What's really weird about this is that when we look at the stars and galaxies in the sky we are looking at the past. We see them not as they are but as they were. The light that we see started out in the past. And yet, the photons don't age. This is crazy at best.
If, for example, the Sun would go out, we wouldn't realize it for 8 minutes. To put this into perspective, the planet Earth could be in line to be destroyed by a gamma ray burst that has already been produced. We just don't realize it's coming until it's too late.
