Astro Facts  

The Subaru Telescope collects light using the 8.2-m (27’) primary mirror. A larger mirror collects more light from outer space, enabling us to see fainter things far from us. When observing the Universe, “to look far away” means “to look at the Universe from long ago” because light needs time to travel in space. For example, the light emitted from a galaxy billions of light-years away takes billions of years to reach Earth. Even from the Sun, the light needs 8 minutes to get to us, so the sunlight we are looking at now is the appearance of the sun 8 minutes ago! Looking for the farthest galaxy means studying the Universe that was just born! By looking far away, you can see the past… sounds mysterious, doesn’t it?