Because light takes time to reach us from distant places in the universe, if we look out in deep space we actually see eons back in time. So if the intelligent inhabitants of a galaxy far, far away were to measure the temperature of the cosmic background radiation at the moment captured by our gaze, they should get a reading higher than 2.7 degrees, because they are living in a younger, smaller, hotter universe than we are. Turns out you can actually test this hypothesis. The molecule cyanogen CN (once used on convicted murderers as the active component of the gas administered by their
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