Looking Back at the Beginning

(Photo Credit: NASA.gov)

Astronomers are continuing to improve their skills at peering back to the beginning of our universe using the visible end of our light spectrum, which is pretty significant. This process can tell us more about the object we’re looking at, which is a black hole 2 billion times the size of our star. As we see it, it is 770 million years after the big bang, but does it really still exist? Could someone see us from that early time? In all likelihood the rest of the universe as we know it did not exist then. Also, find out how to follow the last shuttle mission in real time. And don’t miss what’s in the night sky this week.  All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.

[audio: st20110711.mp3]