Aerial View Maps

Are the images we get from our satellites of galaxies in real time or is there a vast time difference?

An example to help explain my question. Human sight takes 50 milliseconds. So by the time you see an object that object is already 50 milliseconds older. But the numbers here are so minute that it doesn't interfere with anything. So does this have an effect on a super massive scale, say pictures taken of objects 14 light years away?

Public Comments

1. You would be seeing the object as it was 14 years ago, 14 years probably isn't a major difference but with galaxies which are much farther out the time difference is much greater an example is the Andromeda Galaxy which is closest spiral galaxy to us is 2.5 million light years away so we see it like it was 2.5 million years ago and the farthest galaxies we see as they were Billions of years ago
2. Well...yes. Because of the vast distances, the light we're seeing now was emitted by a star or galaxy long ago. If we look at a star that's 20 light years away for example, we're seeing that star as it was 20 years ago. That's how it goes...
3. If you are looking at something that is 14 billion light years away, the light you are looking at took 14 billion years to reach your eye. Hope that helps.
4. Every point in our universe observes itself to be the oldest point in the entire universe. Everything you observe is younger than yourself because it takes time for light to reach you. We observe what is occurring on the Sun eight minutes ago. When you look at a star that is 60 light years away, what you see is the light that left that star 60 years ago; and if they are listening for radio signals from Earth, they will just now be able to detect our very earliest television broadcasts. The view of our own Milky Way galaxy is skewed because it is 100,000 LYs across.
5. Here's the thing about sight. Everything you see, is light. Light does not travel instantaneously... it takes time. In a vacuum (such as space) the speed of light does not change... it is a constant. So a star 14 light years away, appears to you as it did 14 years ago. The Sun, much closer, appears as it did a little over 8 minutes ago. Even a stop sign a few feet away from you, you can only see as it looked a few fractions of a millisecond before you actually see it. And all of that I said above, ignores the time it takes the eyes and brain to communicate with each other the information received, to let you know what you are seeing. To be perfectly technical, NOTHING is seen/perceived/interpreted in "real time."