[James M]

Originally Posted by Cidermaker

" ... so would it be theoretically possible to see the big bang if you looked further out enough?"

Yes, sort of. The light would be so red-shifted that it would be impossibly red and pale, so we wouldn't see anything quite that far back, but cosmologists are very interested in the Cosmic Microwave Background. This is believed (by pretty much everybody) to be the cosmic radiation shortly after the big bang. Cosmologists are interested in it because it is lumpy, and this lumpiness tells us a lot about how matter was distributed, and is important for theories of how galaxies formed.

So in a sense, yes. The CMB is the closest we can get to seeing the big bang, and it is quite close.

That's interesting, thanks.