2006-12-17 14:16:28 · 17 answers · asked by sba05 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Yes. Light from the stars you see in the night sky takes years or even centuries to travel to Earth. Depends on how far away they are. The distance is measured in light-years. A light-year is the distance which light travels in one Earth year. So if you say that a star is ten light-years away, that means the light it gives off now will arrive in ten years. If it dies right now, it will take ten years for us to notice it.
2006-12-17 14:31:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes it is possible due to the velocity of light 186000 miles per second if an object is 1860000 miles away then the image it casts would take 10 seconds to arrive at earth
given that the sun is 96000000 miles from earth any thing we see from the sun is about 8 min 35 seconds getting here
this is the closest star to earth most are light years away this term is relevant to the time light has to travel to get here
2006-12-17 14:24:08 · answer #2 · answered by grant m 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not only possible, but likely that many have since the closest star (other than the sun with is about 8 light minutes away) is about 4 light years away, and many stars can be thousands of light years away, so if they died, we would not know until long into the future.
2006-12-17 14:18:42 · answer #3 · answered by Toms777 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, not only light but also explosions. Betelguese could be gone now in a supernova and we'd have no way of knowing it, until 400 years later we get a massive glow.
2006-12-17 14:48:02 · answer #4 · answered by anonymous 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, because it is a long way away and takes ages to reach us
2006-12-17 14:18:33 · answer #5 · answered by Katie G 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
definitely yes, because the light traveling from the star takes time to stop at when its ray ends
2006-12-17 14:26:26 · answer #6 · answered by Sherlock 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oh yes, totally.
That is the case whenever a supernova is detected. We see it now as it was then. Now it could be no more, but the light is still on its way.
2006-12-17 14:19:58 · answer #7 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, Absolutely.
Infact, when the second nearest stars to us dies, (ofcourse the 1st one is the sun) We will know it roughly after four & a half years after it's death coz, it is approximately 4.5 light years away from us....
2006-12-17 14:19:54 · answer #8 · answered by Mayank 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes.
2006-12-17 14:18:02 · answer #9 · answered by count.voss 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes this happens all the time, even with the sun we would not know it for nine minutes!!
2006-12-18 02:45:08 · answer #10 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋