A Light Year Is an Absurdly Long Distance

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A light year is the amount of distance thata, a ray of light would travel in a year. It takes light seven minutes to get from the earth to the sun. The universe is expanding, as you alluded to earlier, and that causes something called red shift. To see further in time, have to look at infra red light.

This week we have another longform episode! David got a little obsessed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) a few months ago and spent hours and hours researching and talking to experts so that he can try to explain it here on the podcast for Marques and Andrew. This one is a little dense but if you're even remotely interested in the mysteries of our universe this one is for you. David explains why the JWST is such a big deal and what we hope to discover once it begins sending back pictures.

Special thanks to:

Paul Geithner

Dr. Jonathan McDowell

Dr. Peter Gao

Tim Dodd

Sources:

How James Webb Orbits Nothing

Webb vs Hubble (NASA)

Fine Guidance Sensor (NASA)

JWST FAQ (NASA)

Where is Webb? (NASA)

Webb Orbit (NASA)