2006-12-08 14:42:28 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Yes you can.
When you look up at a star 500 lightyears distant, you are looking at that star as it appeared 500 years ago. That star might not even be there anymore. It could have been eaten by a black hole or gone supernova three centuries ago. It will be another 200 years before we'd know for sure.
2006-12-08 14:46:50 · answer #1 · answered by cailano 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The closest star to Earth (other than the sun) is over 4 light years away.
This means that the light you see now from stars left over 4 years ago (millions of years in some cases). If you see a star explode now, the explosion actually took place many years ago.
In that sense, when we look up at the sky we are looking into the past.
2006-12-08 14:48:26 · answer #2 · answered by Eng_helper 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sometime can and sometime can't. Because the happen in the space was past actually but it was only the light.
Try to think, when you are looking the sky, must have something like satelites and comets are move over you. These were not past because the distance was short.
2006-12-08 16:04:22 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No matter where you look, you are seeing the past, for the reasons that "Zeus" stated. It's just so much more negligible when looking at things a few meters away as compared to a few dozens of light years away. I would say this, however, the statement in your second paragrpah is a little premature in the assumptions. *Most* stars that are visible to the naked eye are within a few hundred light years of us. It is pretty safe to say that virtually none of them "do not exist" right now, as their lifetimes are mostly in the ranges of billions of years. It is doubtful that any stars we can see without the aid of telescopes no longer exist as stars "in real time." There are a couple of notable exceptions... very very old stars very vary far away, but still bright enough to be seen from where we are located.
2016-05-22 22:01:57 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, because of how many lightyears away the stars and other bodies are, we are actually seeing how the universe looked hundreds of years ago versus this very second. In the same way, if the sun, which is a star, was to burn out, we wouldn't know for seven minutes due to the distance that the light has to travel to get to us.
2006-12-08 14:59:22 · answer #5 · answered by Waverly Pascale 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course. Especially at night, some stars we see are more than 1,000 light-years away. In day-light, we only see one object that is in the past which is the sun, it's only 8 light-minutes away from Earth.
2006-12-08 15:15:07 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ya, I see what you mean. Some bodies are light years away and that was years ago. Some may even be burned out. You see the sun where it was 8 minutes ago.
2006-12-08 14:52:46 · answer #7 · answered by robert m 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Definitely YES!
2006-12-08 15:58:17 · answer #8 · answered by missiemoo 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well, if you say that about looking up, why not about everything? if you are looking at your computer that is just a foot in front of you it is still taking time for the light to travel. even though the time is something so small, im sure it could be calculated but still so small that our brain cannot pick it up.
2006-12-08 15:10:00 · answer #9 · answered by Gary L 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even when you look at your friend 10 feet away,you are looking into the past.
Look at yourself in a mirror,you are seeing what you were!
2006-12-09 00:08:47 · answer #10 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋