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How do we know the universe outside our solar system truly exists?

This is something that has been bothering me for a while as I’m diving through space articles, documentaries etc. All seem to take our observations for granted, which are based on the data of the entire observable universe (light, waves, radiation…) we receive at our, in comparison, tiny speck. How do we know we are interpreting all this correctly with just the research we’ve done in our own solar system and we’re not completely wrong about everything outside of it?

This never seems to be addressed so maybe I’m having a fundamental flaw in my thought process.

TheOneCurly ,
@TheOneCurly@lemmy.theonecurly.page avatar

Observation is all we have. There’s no indication that anything outside the solar system is different from the things inside of it. Some stars have a light spectrum very similar to our sun, which implies they are stars in similar places in their life. Others have a light spectrum that is very different.

We can use different parallax angles to determine that some stars are much further away than others. Parallax works the same at 10 miles as it does at 10 light years.

Is there some particular observation you don’t understand?

deegeese ,

We can directly measure the distance to nearby stars by observing how much they move against the backdrop of distant galaxies as the Earth moves around the sun.

If all stars were the same distance away they would maintain their relative positions like some sort of cosmic wallpaper.

Instead it’s like moving through a forest and seeing near trees block far ones.

Zoldyck ,

Because we are part of it, and inside of it?

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