From outer space could I see myself in the past?

Question

If I was able to travel the speed of light into outer space and look back onto earth with a strong telescope, would I see myself in the past? from baby to adult-hood? Could I do anything to change how I've lived?by what means could I comunicate back at myself?

Answer 1

In theory yes. The light travelling from far off stars takes thousands of years to reach earth so if you could "magically" transport yourself there and had some means of viewing the goings on on earth, then, yes you could view today what was happening in... the time of Chirst for example.

However for viewing myself in the past, I find a video camera is a much more practical solution

Answer 2

I fear your question is tainted from learning physics from Hollywood movies! Superman, Star Trek and the new Deja Vu spring to mind.

You cant travel at the speed of light let alone go faster but if for arguments sake you could travel at the speed of light you'd never see a single second in to the past. In fact travelling at the speed of light you'd be subject to the effects of time dilation and therefore not be able to turn back and look - the whole universe would end in an instant from your perspective. Its all very well asking these sorts of questions but if you say if that physical law was there and that one was different you can say x - but if you're going to ignore the effect of well studied physical laws what you end up with is nonsense. If you could end up on a planet a few 10's of light years away (lets not try and figure out how) you might look through the telescope and see yourself growing up but that will still have already happened - many years ago so it doesnt make sense to communicate back - there's nobody there to communicate with. The Fabric of the Cosmos is one book that answers these types of questions from a real scientific perspective and it well worth a look.

Answer 3

You would have to travel faster than the speed of light to see yourself in the past as that light from your past caught up with you when you slowed down. You would however see those left behind in the past. We do that to a small degree anyway because light takes a little time to cross a room or street and our brain takes longer to process the images received by the eye.
Whether it could ever be possible to change the past is argued over by astrophysicists and would have mind boggling consequences if it was.

Answer 4

The light carrying your image takes time to reach you; the distance travelled by light in a year (about 9,460,730,472,580.8 km) is called a light year. So if you could magically transport yourself that far from the Earth and had a powerful enough telescope you'd see yourself as you were a year ago.

However, you wouldn't be able to alter your life as you'd be viewing images of the past. Also for this to happen, you'd have to travel faster than light. Only by travelling faster than light could you out run the image of yourself carried on the light.

For example, light takes about 20 minutes to travel from Mars, so when you look at Mars through a telescope you see it as it was 20 minutes ago.

This is why powerful telescopes tell us so much about how the universe has evolved; they can see objects thousands of light years away and so see them as they were thousands of years ago.

Answer 5

I'm not too sure - but it seems very unlikely to me. You'd have to travel very, very quickly (much faster than light) to reach a place where the light that was produced when you were a baby etc is only just arriving. And that just isn't possible, theoretically, or otherwise.

Just by seeing something doesn't mean you can affect or interact with it. We can see the light from long dead stars, but we can't make any changes to it.

Having said that, there are places within the universe who would, theoretically, see us as we were in the past due to the length of time it's taken for our light to reach them. Create a warp speed space rocket, travel there then look back at us and it may be possible to see yourself in the past.

Answer 6

Your view would probably be obscured by the image of your ship arriving. However, assuming you could see Earth, remember that you're traveling _as fast_ as the image leaving Earth. Assuming that looking at the group of photons didn't absorb them (remember, you're traveling at the speed of light, an image of you leaving Earth is traveling with you), you would see a still image of the moment you hit the speed of light. Yes, Earth would appear to shrink as traveling away from something tends to do, but everything on Earth (the image, not the real Earth) would slow down as you approach the speed of light.

No you could not change anything about how you lived by affecting the image, after all, it is just an image.

If you stopped, the image would resume from where it left of. If you traveled towards Earth again, the image would speed up. When you arrive, the image will again reflect the current state of life on Earth.

Another way to look at it. The light from the sun takes 8.5 minutes (8 minutes, 30 seconds) to get to Earth. If we did something to the sun that caused a visible change in the sun, we wouldn't know, by looking, if it worked, until 8.5 minutes later. Somebody observing from Venus would know about it before Earth and somebody on Mars would know about it later than Earth.

If you traveled faster than light (technically impossible, but still), then it would be possible to observe yourself growing up. You still wouldn't be able to affect anything, though, as it's just a picture that took place years ago. Problem is, it's impossible to get 'ahead' of those older photons and observe them first-hand.

Answer 7

Hello,

This is one of those nice psueo scientific ideas but has no basis in reality. If and its a BIG if? you could travel into space at the speed of light you would only then see the earth and out solar system from a new vantage point, from a VERY very long way away. You would see the sun & earth as a very small and very distant system. A system no different from many others that you could look at in almost any direction you look in.

**No! you wouldnt see yourself
**No! you woudlnt see yourself in the past (thats a myth)
**No! you cannot undo your past or actions that you've taken in the past that you now regret.
**No! you wouldnt be able to communicate back to yourself.

**Most people dont realise that there is only a series of "Now" this moments, one "now" moment flows into the next "now" moment. There is only NOW!! and most people just dont get it.

**Sorry! but time travel nor travelling at the speed of light are still only theories and not actualities.

**The fastest that man has managed to travel with the technologies we do currently have are using a Scram jet and that's only a few times more than the speed of sound. I think the NASA tests reached a 1,000 mph or several thousand Mph.

IR

Answer 8

You would have to travel faster than the speed of light to see back in time, I always remember hearing of this:

You are on a train setting off and you see a clock on the station you leave. When you travel at the speed of light (lets assume you can still see this clock) the hands would stop. Then if you travel faster than the speed of light the hands would appear to go backwards.

Answer 9

it extremely is organic and organic impossible in view that people can in basic terms breed with different people. A canines can not breed with a hen. it would be some thing comparable with people and extraterrestrial beings. My have faith is that there is not something alongside with extraterrestrial beings. I somewhat referred to as them angels (evil and divine). there is an countless conflict between God and evil and angels on the two factors combat the conflict. some angels are punished while captured and sent all the way down to our existance. they could be for our earnings or our prejudice. Eitherway they're supperior to us and hence comprehend the guidelines of the universe and are able to violate them in each way (vacationing swifter than mild, no gravity upon them, etc...) i glance at it like a huge Matrix the place the utility editor enters into this technique. universal, there in basic terms one grasp more suitable ability.

Answer 10

No on all counts because you would have to travel faster than light for this to happen.

This is covered in General and Special Relativity