that is really strong and bring the telescope with you, as your looking back on Earth the way it was ages ago, can you see the people on it thousands of years ago and the other events happening?
Would you see Jesus and wars that were happening back then?
Is it possible?
2006-11-08 15:56:11 · 9 answers · asked by newyorkchess2005 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
No. The only way you could do something kind of like that would be to leave earth travelling at faster than the speed of light (which is impossible as far as we know) and then get to an observation point that is receiving light from earth (that you beat there) from the past time on earth that you want to observe.
It's really not worth the effort cause you already know what happened and you wouldn't have sound. It would be like watching a silent movie without a piano player in the background. *yawn*
2006-11-08 16:04:28 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No,
The reason is you would have to travel faster than the speed of light to see into the past which occured befor you left Earth.
If you left Earth now and traveled at the speed of light 1000 light years away then turned around, you'd see things on Earth how they were shortly after you left even though it's been 1000 years since you left.
Now if you could mysteriously instantly teleport yourself someplace 10,000 light years away, and could turn around and look at Earth, the light from Earth arriving at you would have left Earth 10,000 years ago, and so you would see ancient people (though no telescope actually has that resolving ability from 10,000 light years away).
But teleportation is impossible for humans so you can't see into the past befor the time you actually left Earth.
2006-11-09 00:57:39 · answer #2 · answered by minuteblue 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Basically what you are suggesting is traveling back in time. Spacetime is a wondrous subject with many twists and turns. It really depends upon the composition of spacetime. However, physics, as we know it, would not permit you to travel back in time because you would have travel faster than the speed of light, which Einstein proved was the only known Constant in the Universe.
The could be another way around this problem, though. It may be able to create a wormhole to a distant part of the universe and then look back at the light as it arrives at that location.
Again, under these conditions it is not clear (theoretically) that you would be capable of interaction with that time.
2006-11-09 00:08:23 · answer #3 · answered by Scarp 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a lot of controversy about this question.
But think in this way:
If you throw a ball, and you have the ability to run faster than the ball was thrown, now you turn around and look at the ball.
You will see the ball wherever it happens to be at that point. But not as it left your hand.
That is history and has already happened. But the ball where you see it is essentially where you perceive it to be.
To be able to able to see what happened in the past visually is for now impossible.
Maybe in some far distant time, our descendants might harness the power to convert time and space, which is what would be needed, to accomplish "going back".
2006-11-09 15:20:55 · answer #4 · answered by Gnome 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, you couldn't see back into the past. The light that left Earth from any time BEFORE you left is moving away at the speed of light. To see that light and the ancient events you describe you'd have to travel faster than light, and that's not possible.
2006-11-09 02:30:02 · answer #5 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, if you believe Jesus and wars existed back then.
No, it's not possible. According to Einstien, you can never catch up with that light.
Of course there are theories that the universe is really a big sphere and that if you travel in one direction, you'll eventually come back to Earth. In that case, you could see into the past.
2006-11-09 00:02:35 · answer #6 · answered by something 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No you would not be able to see events back on Earth from long ago. If you were able to travel at the speed of light you would see yourself just taking off on your spaceship. Because it takes an infinite amount of energy for mass to travel faster than the speed of light you would never be able to achieve what you describe.
2006-11-09 00:04:59 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can not fly faster than the speed of light, so as you distance yourself from earth and look back , you can only see what happened at the time you departed or later.
but if you find a way to Jump space, that is, disappear from one point in space and immediately reappear somewhere else, you could theoretically observe the past.
2006-11-09 03:44:16 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If traveling in "wormholes" exist then yes this is possible but im not sure on the validity of that theory
2006-11-09 16:34:29 · answer #9 · answered by Alamo323 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋