These deep field images still blows my mind every time I see it.

Yes, these pictures are mind blowing. nostr:npub1cmmswlckn82se7f2jeftl6ll4szlc6zzh8hrjyyfm9vm3t2afr7svqlr6f

Beautiful.

But can light travel for that distance?

Can light travel for that long (timewise)?

Apparently, if the sun was 24× further away we wouldn't see it.

I tend to question everything NASA puts out.

Indirectly, its one of the reasons you (& all of us) are here!

tolkienish old english name...

BTW, if you want a history book where names sound tolkienish, read the venerable Bede book "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" very colorful passages, and he is called the father of historiography because he cares to discuss his sources and if he trusts them more or less.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People

Fun fact, Earendel is the Old English word for sun and was often used as an Old English title for Christ.

Describing Christ as the Sun was significant back then as medieval theologians sought to see God in the seasons and nature around them. Here’s a poem written that describes Christ as Earendel:

“O Earendel, brightest of angels,

sent to mankind across the earth,

and righteous radiance of the sun,

splendid above all stars, by your own self

you ever enlighten every age.

As you, God born of God long ago,

Son of the true Father, eternally existed

without beginning in the glory of heaven,

so your own creation cries with confidence

to you now for their needs, that you send

that bright sun to us, and come yourself

to lighten those who long have lived

surrounded by shadows and darkness, here

in everlasting night, who, shrouded by sins,

have had to endure death’s dark shadow.”