The common conception is that we are looking back into time as we peer out into deep space.

However time is relative - Einstein already demonstrated that.

So it depends on how we look into space.

Einstein predicted that if one could go fast enough and far enough in a straight line one would be right back at where one started.

If you think about it, the starting point can never be exactly the same as when we left. an X factor has been added to it

s+X

That X factor are the associated alteration to that point in time-space that occurs with the passage of time. Since we are rotating in a solar system that is orbiting a galaxy which is hurling around the universe with no frame of reference to go from there, we can assume that no static point truly exists. No point in space stays even remotely the same. Every instant, each point is vastly different.

What's more, when we understand this - fixed points simply don't exist.

There is nothing but oscillating energy and it is oscillating so intricately and at such speeds that we can never "freeze frame" a moment in time and lock it down. There would always be some measure of change happening faster than we could measure!

As you may have suspected, this would tip one off to the fact that one is living in an infinite universe. If no unique points in time space exist, we live in an infinite macrocosm of oscillating energy.

So now we want to peer across the cosmos, based upon the speed of light. With every new measurement we throw back the age of the universe. It used to be 5 billion years old, then 7 billion years old now it is 13 or 14 billion years old. We still keep coming upon galaxies and objects, many of which seem formed too fully for prevailing theories and so we throw back the time scale some more.

How old is it?

We're measuring it with light.

Light has a capacity of 186,000 mps. Everything we see is based in the radiations of EM - all traveling at light speed.

You ask what sort of telescope could observe beyond the visible universe? Obviously you can't use light because light is limited.

So what?

We have nothing traveling faster than light speed...or do we? What about the movement of our galaxy itself...or the particle motion in an atom?

What would the universe look like if you could hitch a ride on an atomic particle and travel at a speed faster than light?

Light could no longer catch up with you for one thing.

You would be in darkness - a seeming void of nothingness.

Or would you be?

Perhaps your new frame of reference would open your eyes to the world of energy that oscillates faster than light. All those other particles should be visible to you. A swirling mass of energy - a sea of spiraling motions.

And what is our material universe anyway? Yes, just a sea of spiraling motions. The tiny atomic particle or the galaxy orbiting through the universe covering incalculable distances.

So what do you notice then?

That's right. Even as fast as you are going, some things are going even faster. So now that you have crossed the light speed threshold, you realize that there are relatively faster speeds even then.

And on and on it would go...

At some point you would tire of this constant acceleration and simply accept that the universe is relative and that all measurements of the energy in the universe are relative measurements based upon one moving form of energy with another.

Measuring the universe with light is like measuring the speed of a garter snake with a snail. We can only measure a portion of the garter snakes motion. "5 snail slithers...no 7...no...14 snail slithers!" And the pesky thing keeps moving on us! My goodness it's accelerating!

Well, no it isn't. It only looks that way because your instrument of measure can't keep up with the motion. Light is equally incapable of keeping up with the universe's motion and workings.

And after you capture a garter snake and start measuring the gazelle's leaps you find yourself equally confounded and not a bit closer at realizing the neverending nature of your quest.

Measuring infinity....ascribing an age or period of existence to infinity is the task for those dogs who like chasing their tail for the exercise.

We must decipher these things out through keen observation of our current location and by extrapolated theorizing. Physical measurements and observations will only tend to confuse one and get in the way of understanding just what the universe really is, how it sustains itself and how our time and space figure into the big picture.

We are presently sharing our view of the universe with the snail, who understands what he knows of the universe by watching the garter snake get smaller and smaller as it seems to accelerate away from him.

It's a start. But it is the start of a quest that shall never end.