If a star is one million light years away, we will be looking at what the star was a million years ago. So if i was standing on that star would i see the earth a million years in past? Would this be a form of time travel?
2006-09-12 03:45:29 · 20 answers · asked by Cotton Wool 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
This is only a theory, obviously you wouldnt be able to see the earth.
Im not talking about travelling there im saying if you were there right now.
2006-09-12 03:56:46 · update #1
Almost right. Technically, no because there's a small common flaw in your premise. Assuming you could travel to the star faster than light or even instantaneously and you could look back to earth you WOULD see things happening on earth in the past but not 1 million years in the past. Just because a star is 1 million light years away NOW doesn't mean it was when the light was emitted. Same is true for the light coming from earth. So while you would see the past you would see it more recently than a million years. The star might have been 800,000 light years away when it emitted the light and it's moved to 1 million light years in the time it took the light to get to earth. Without knowing how the star and earth move you can't say for sure but because of universal expansion (the doppler shift) it would typically be less than the current distance.
There are more complicated scenarios involving big bang inflation but that's more than you asked
2006-09-12 03:59:24 · answer #1 · answered by Scott L 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes and no.no because the star may be dead or turning into a blackhole. or something else. but yes . say if u travel faster than the speed of light and u are 200 million light years away and u arive on some planet and get out a really good telescope and look at the earth. then maybe u could see the light that the earth sent off millions of years ago. the reason y is becuase the light is just now reaching that point. inorder for u to do that u would have to go a place that the light bouncing off the earth that long ago is just now reaching that place. u are at.
2006-09-12 05:07:48 · answer #2 · answered by zerophilmister 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
like someone rightly said u won't see the earth cos the earth does not give out large amounts of light, but if the earth did give out light so u could c it then it will take a million yrs for the light from the earth to get to u, so eventually if u stayed out on that star long enough u will see the earth as it was a million years ago. its possible that u may be looking at a dead planet cos i don't think the earth will still last a million yrs, not with way things are going now
2006-09-12 04:06:48 · answer #3 · answered by rickybellanco 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
a light year is a measurement of distance not time so yes if you look through a telescope and see a star a million light years away you are seeing a star 1 million years ago however travelling to that star at the speed of light would take 1 million years which of course you would be dead.
2006-09-12 04:00:24 · answer #4 · answered by jojo 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You would see the earth a million years in the past but you would not have travelled through time.
Unless you got there faster than the speed of light.
2006-09-12 03:49:15 · answer #5 · answered by badgerbeetle 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We can see the past in old movies, but we can't really be there. We will only be able to travel in space when we have evolved into computers that can remember everything and live forever. IBM and four other big companies tried for five years around 1975 to make a computer that could be taught like a child and failed. The challenge is still out there and will be solved some day. Your entente could be transferred to that computer and you would be able to live there forever and travel in space, but not time.
Our big problem is that we can only remember about 10% of what we know and ever child has to take a life time to learn all that you will have ever learned. The best answer until then is reading. For now, you can only be immortal through your grand children.
2006-09-12 04:08:46 · answer #6 · answered by Pey 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
"If a star is one million light years away, we will be looking at what the star was a million years ago" --- This would mean you already have (and are consistently) time traveling as it doesn't matter where you are (earth or distant sun) you're still observing light that has taken along time to get to where you are.
Technically though, this is not time travel, but simply observation.
2006-09-12 03:58:42 · answer #7 · answered by Pirate AM™ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually if you were standing on the star, you'd burn up and die. But yes, you would seeing the events on earth as it were a million years ago. Looking into the past is what I would call it.
2006-09-12 06:45:33 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, you would see Earth as it was 1 million years ago. We find dinosaur relics that are millions of years old, yet we do not class that as time travel, just looking back in time. So, I would say no to the latter part of your question.
2006-09-12 03:59:26 · answer #9 · answered by Polo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think you are missing the point about the stars being one million light years away - and also the point about time travel!@
2006-09-12 03:52:50 · answer #10 · answered by nswblue 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋