How long is a long time ago, and how far is far, far away?

[Morrus]

Did Star Wars take place in Andromeda 200 years ago, or some galaxy billions of light years away billions of years ago?

And what has happened to that galaxy since? How's it doing now, a long time later?

 

[Janx]

This is the kind of excellent question I miss from this sub-forum.

As I understand it, the universe is about 14 billion years old (or is it trillion). And earth is 4.5 billion years old. Assuming nothing exceeded the speed of light, that makes the universe about 28 billion light years wide at best.

Now for children, when grandpa was a child is "a long time ago", and anywhere it takes half a day to drive is "far, far away"

So I would use MorrusMath(TM) based on his advanced knowledge of StarWars Physics to compute how far the Millenium Falcon can get that either takes half day to get there or about 20-30 years.

Odds are good it is the Andromeda Galaxy.

Now, I don't want to spoil anything, but I happen to know that after the last great battle not yet televised in our galaxy, when a Commander Drehpehs sacrificed her life and chose whether to unify the Light and the Dark or to eliminate one or the other, things changed dramatically. Also, before that point in their history, they sent a special ship called the Suxen to a neighboring galaxy to start a new space station colony there, followed by a series of ark ships. Only one ark made it, and arrived to find the Suxen damaged and in disarray.

 

[Tonguez]

Did Star Wars take place in Andromeda 200 years ago, or some galaxy billions of light years away billions of years ago?

And what has happened to that galaxy since? How's it doing now, a long time later?

I thought is was 25th Century Earth refugees getting caught in a timewarp to Andromeda's past

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

1.21 gigaparsecs

 

[Morrus]

This is the kind of excellent question I miss from this sub-forum.

As I understand it, the universe is about 14 billion years old (or is it trillion). And earth is 4.5 billion years old. Assuming nothing exceeded the speed of light, that makes the universe about 28 billion light years wide at best.

Not quite. Nothing can move through space faster than light, but space itself can (and did) expand faster than light. For that reason, the observable universe is actually 47 billion light years across, not 28 billion.

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

That, of course, is just the observable universe. We don't know what lies outside that sphere, though we assume it's more of the same. Beyond that horizon certainly qualifies as "a long way away", but then so does Andromeda a mere 2.5 million light years away.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How long is a long time ago, and how far is far, far away?

I don't know, but Larry King got his big break in broadcasting there.

 

[Dioltach]

They say for Americans 200 years is a long time ago, and for Europeans 200 miles is far, far away.

 

[Morrus]

They say for Americans 200 years is a long time ago, and for Europeans 200 miles is far, far away.

I've never heard anybody actually say that. I've heard people *claim* that people say it about a million times though.

It's a fairly silly saying. Whoever came up with it originally has much to answer for.

(Cue compulsory anecdote from American who had some wide-eyed European visitors who had never seen a map and were SHOCKED at the distances!)

 

[Tonguez]

I've never heard anybody actually say that. I've heard people *claim* that people say it about a million times though.

It's a fairly silly saying. Whoever came up with it originally has much to answer for.

(Cue compulsory anecdote from American who had some wide-eyed European visitors who had never seen a map and were SHOCKED at the distances!)

Apparently it was Earl Hitchner who is a music journalist specializing in Irish Music, so yeah his knowledge of geography may be open to question. That said, coming from nation where the entire length of the country can be driven across in two days (including the ferry ride) I can well understand the sentiment.

BTW the quite is "The difference between America and England is that Americans think 100 years is a long time, while the English think 100 miles is a long way."

 

[Morrus]

Apparently it was Earl Hitchner who is a music journalist specializing in Irish Music, so yeah his knowledge of geography may be open to question. That said, coming from nation where the entire length of the country can be driven across in two days (including the ferry ride) I can well understand the sentiment.

Nobody drives 2 days to work in either country. The length of the country only counts if you're going to cross it.