Explore Secrets of the Universe in Spectacular – The Future of Space Exploration
Nobody knows for sure how the universe, its galaxies and their many millions of solar systems formed. We do have ways of looking back in time (in fact, every time we look at the Sun, we are looking eight minutes back in time!). This is because it takes light eight minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth. More distant stars may be hundreds of light years away, so when we look at them, we are seeing them as they were hundreds of years ago. However, we are not yet able to look back in time far enough to see how the universe actually began. But, we are able to watch the formation of other stars and know that, millions of years ago, the Sun began its life in a similar way.