Maximum distance light can travel

[Stclaim]

Is there (or rather, what is) a maximum distance that light can travel?

Surely there is. Can anything travel forever, infinite energy?

If we think of light in a way similar to batteries. A rough similarity I am afraid. Then we could (possibly) explain the problem of the universe not having enough matter/energy, as we can only see part of it. The light from the rest of the universe not reaching us because it exceeds the maximum distance light can travel. Thus there is more universe out there that we cannot, and never will, see unless we travel to another galaxy.

[swansont]

It doesn't require infinite energy to travel forever. There's no dissipation of the energy it has, if traveling in flat spacetime.

Light does not behave like a battery.

[Strange]

10 minutes ago, Stclaim said:

The light from the rest of the universe not reaching us because it exceeds the maximum distance light can travel.

Actually, just because it hasn't had time to reach us yet. 

[swansont]

1 hour ago, Strange said:

Actually, just because it hasn't had time to reach us yet. 

And some will never reach us because of expansion.  

 

[Raider5678]

2 hours ago, swansont said:

It doesn't require infinite energy to travel forever. There's no dissipation of the energy it has, if traveling in flat spacetime.

Light does not behave like a battery.

Well, there are random atoms floating around in space.

Wouldn't that theoretically eventually absorb the rays of light?

 

[swansont]

5 minutes ago, Raider5678 said:

Well, there are random atoms floating around in space.

Wouldn't that theoretically eventually absorb the rays of light?

That will attenuate light, yes — you will lose some photons. But not all of them, and the light isn't continually losing energy as it travels.

[Strange]

And this doesn't just apply to photons. A golf ball would fly through empty space without losing energy as well. (Of course, interstellar space is not completely empty so there would be a minute amount of drag from the interstellar medium which could slow it down.)

[Itoero]

2 hours ago, Stclaim said:

The light from the rest of the universe not reaching us because it exceeds the maximum distance light can travel.

The light from the rest of the universe hasn't reached us because there is a limit to its speed...c. This is called the particle horizon or cosmic light horizon.  It represents the furthest distance from which we can retrieve information from the past, and so defines the observable universe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cosmological_horizons

[Mordred]

As a stable mean lifetime massless particle the photon has an effective infinite range. See 

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Forces/exchg.html

Edited November 8, 2017 by Mordred