# Colliding Galaxies
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colliding-galaxies/748504
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 10, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colliding-galaxies/748504 "2016-03-10T02:16:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colliding-galaxies/748504/21 "2016-03-11T00:12:03Z")
> [@whataboutbob](#):
>
> It’s incredible that we have pictures of colliding galaxies 100 MILLION LIGHT YEARS away…If we are seeing these pictures now we are apparently looking at the past. Now, as we are seeing the light now which is 100 million light years away how many earth years is that equal to?
To be clear, light years are a measure of distance, not time. You are “looking at the past” because it took 100 million Earth years for the light to travel all the way to the Earth.
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### Author:  [@OHS201](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OHS201)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colliding-galaxies/748504/22 "2016-03-11T13:55:47Z")
> [@whataboutbob](#):
>
> Now, as we are seeing the light now which is 100 million light years away how many earth years is that equal to?
This has already been answered, but if you meant “how many miles is that equal to,” a light-year is roughy 6 trillion miles (6,000,000,000,000), so 100 million light years would be about 6 quintillion miles (6,000,000,000,000,000,000).
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