Submitted by: Joseph Grisafi
Math is a fascinating subject, especially very large numbers - something that has always fascinated me. One reason I got into astronomy.
The galaxies mentioned here are 11B light years away. I'll let you do the math if so inclined. Just how far away is that? Multiple 11B times 6 trillion and you will get the distance in miles. I bet you can't even say this number without working out the decimal places. Even then you'll have a hard time saying it.
A piece of trivia: In 2015 LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory detected after shocks of a pair of black holes colliding 1.3B light years away. Again 1.3B times 6T for miles. And this was only 1.3B light years away, not 11B. So those shock waves took 1.3B years to reach us and we felt them. Imagine traveling through the universe for 1.3 billion years.
1.3 times 6 = 7.8 with 20 zero's added on.
Gravitational Waves is something Einstein theorized. He was found to be right.
Fascinating.
Joe
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