Are images we see in a telescope snapshot into the past??

Question

I've always pondered this but if objects that are 100+ light years away just snapshots into the past? If it takes a million years for the light to reach us wouldn't we just be seeing an image that is a million years old? If that object were destroyed or altered yesterday then (I would think) it would take us a million years before we could see the change. I'm no astronomy buff but I love to ponder over its beauty and wonder occasionally. So am I right or wrong and please explain why either way. Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes, you are completely right. This is why astronomy is so important. By looking at galaxies that are a billion light years away, we are seeing what those galaxies looked like a billion years ago. Since we can see objects up to 13.7 billion light years away (corresponding to the age of the universe), we can see objects like galaxies as they appeared at a range of times, letting us develop more thorough hypotheses about how the universe itself has evolved, and what might lie in our galaxy's future.

Answer 2

If you break it down a little simpler, everything you see is in the past. It has already happened. Of course, things close to you makes the difference inperceptible, but when you consider that the light from the sun takes 8 minutes to get here, it kind of puts in perspective. If the sun should hypothetically "blow up", you wouldn't know about it for 8 minutes.
The things we see off in space, like stars and nebulae, could already be gone and what we are looking at now is what happened maybe a million years ago.
So, yep, you are right on track.

Answer 3

Something 100 light years away - it takes that particular light 100 years to get here... so yes, your right... its a glimpse into the past. If your interested enough Ill have you ponder something else directly related to your question but from the opposite spectrum... Why is it, that a person traveling at the speed of light would travel into the future effectively aging faster than a bystander?

Answer 4

Now you know why in science it's called 'Time/Space'.
Time and Space are interconnected in a way that we still do not understand. At the quantum level distance is an illusion of perspective. Also consider that what we think of as a physical reality is also an illusion since no two atoms ever touch. Our world is a eletromagnetic symphony of patterns that we interpret as substance, but in reality we can touch nothing but the elctromagnetic fields of pre-determined formed patterns. So the universe could be just a projection, a movie that we collectively imagine. Just a thought!

Answer 5

yeah i think its awesome how you can just look up every night and see what happened millions or billions of years ago... just think, if aliens ever tried to give us a visible sign that they were out there, its possible their civilization would be wiped out by the time it even reached us... worlds stars and systems could be destroyed but for millenia theyre still just pretty twinkling lights to us...

Answer 6

You've nailed the whole thing!

When you think about, we never really see anything right "now." It takes light some time to get from anything to our eyes, no matter how close. Hold your hand up in front of your face and you still won't see it right "now." In other words, we never see anything right now.

Answer 7

You are correct in your thinking. Even the light from our own sun takes a few minutes to get here.

Answer 8

yes. If the sun were to explode, we wouldn't know it for about 8 minutes!

Answer 9

Yes.

Answer 10

You hit the nail on the head!