24. How Space Shows Us the Past
Gazing up at the night sky is like flipping through the pages of a cosmic history book. Every star and every galaxy we see is a snapshot from the past. That’s because light, fast as it is, takes time to travel across vast distances of space. So, when you’re admiring a galaxy a billion light-years away, you’re really looking at light that left it a billion years ago.

It’s a mind-bending thought: what we’re seeing might no longer exist in the form we perceive it. This lag turns the act of stargazing into a time-traveling experience, where the light reaching our eyes is a bridge to the universe’s history, showcasing celestial events that unfolded long before our time.