Am I stupid?

Question

Then why is this question hurting my brain?
When we look at very distant stars, are we looking back in time?
Since we are using light year to measure the distance b/n objects in space, when we look at stars, the light that is hitting us now must have started from the stars long time a go that means the stars appears how they looked like some time ago when the light was emitted from it, right?
Ok in other example, Alpha Century, the closes star to earth is 3 light years away right? Does that mean the light we see from it now, left the star 3 years a go? So if the star was destroyed or gone from it is position, with in this time, we wouldn’t know right?
Am I making things complicated? Or do you get my point?

Answer 1

now sonny, don't go callin yoursef dat - let udders decide

Answer 2

Am I stupid? Surely not.

Then why is this question hurting my brain? You are wondering.

When we look at very distant stars, we are looking back in time !!

Since we are using light year to measure the distance b/n objects in space, when we look at stars, the light that is hitting us now must have started from the stars long time a go that means the stars appears how they looked like some time ago when the light was emitted from it, right?
Right !!

Ok in other example, Alpha Century, the closes star to earth is 3 light years away right? Does that mean the light we see from it now, left the star 3 years a go? So if the star was destroyed or gone from it is position, with in this time, we wouldn’t know right?
Right !!

Am I making things complicated? No.
Or do you get my point? You are a good thinker.

Th

Answer 3

Yes. You are absolutely right. Stars are ata distance measured in light years. So the stars which we are seeing now are not like that at present. If a star is at a distance of 50 light years from earth, then that star we are seeing is 50 years back star. If it is destroyed now it could be found by our naked eye after 50 years later.

Answer 4

Actually you are right.

The scientist are watching the events very closely to learn about collapsing of the stars or birth of a star or a planet.

There was one such event believe it was a birth of a Galaxy.

We can learn so much from such rear events.



This is for Dell:

Sun is only 8 minute and 8 second away from over earth as the light travels, it is considered medium size star.

Now you can calculate the distance yourself, there is a unmanned mission planed, and there was one that had some success.

Shelty K:

I am sure it is a typo, he means 3 light years. which is partially true, sun is the a star and its light takes 8 minutes and 8.8 second to reach us. Next closest one is 3 light years away, but there may be some that we cannot see they may be small and just out of range of our instruments(technology).

Physics books have different apparatus to measure speed of the light and also the distance, so we are not guessing. Get a college level physics book (senior or Junior B.Sc/M.Sc).

Answer 5

You are basically correct except Alpha (and Beta) Centauri are roughly 4.35 light years away from earth. A "light year" is the distance that light will travel in exactly one year. Because nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, no signal from Alpha Centauri could reach us in less than 4.35 years to let us know the star had perhaps exploded. Also the light you see from Alpha Centauri tonight left the star 4.35 years ago (and it is now an historical record of the actual star). Nice work thinking that through.

Answer 6

judging by everyone elses answers - everyone gets your point and no you are not making things complicated. Also, the reasoning you just gave makes perfect sense and can only leave me to the conclusion that you're a very intelligent and deep thinker rather than stupid like i am. Yes, we are actually seeing the past when we look at stars. However you should not ponder upon this too deeply unless you are trying to build a time machine. Maybe your theory will come to something.

Answer 7

Yes, as many have said, you are right.

One thing to realize, though, is that things that we see many lightyears away are quite large, and usually don't change very fast. Nearby stars and galaxies probably look much the same "now" as they did in the past when the light that we see was emitted.

Also, even gravity propagates at the speed of light, so there is no way to use gravity waves for faster-than-light communication.

Answer 8

i believe that light which emitted from the star and travelled up to us would have taken light years. But, if we are able to catch that light, at this moment, that star is still there and emitting the light. If the source of emission of the light doesnt exist at this moment, we may not be able to catch the light that had emitted from that star several light years ago.

It means if u r seeing that star now, it is for sure that star is still there.

Answer 9

Oh pahleaaassss.... There is no such thing as stupid question. In fact, this is the smartest thing I've heard in a while. You are right on. We are looking at the lights from history. We can't really see anything in the space at real time due to the fact that light needs to travel from a distance.

Answer 10

Practically u r correct.Your theory will be more exceptable if you can go back to early century , what I means is for more accuracy. If we happens to know after three years when a star approaching at a super speed towards earth, nobody will live to know, before knowing we will be destroyed.But pl. dont get mad, nowadays we have electronic eye as well as thousands of space guard ,the sattelite they are super sophisticate and ever ready. Thus, we may see anything before three years in advance.

Answer 11

I think you've got it right. There's currently no way to know what's happening real time at distant points in the universe because, as you say, it takes millions (or billions) of years for their light to reach us. However, famous astronomers have concluded that the universe is pretty uniform in the big picture, which means whatever you see close to us in our Milky Way galaxy or neighboring galaxies is the way things pretty much should look throughout the universe. The only thing that we know instantly acts over distance in space is gravity. So we instantly feel the gravitational forces from the sun even though it takes 8 minutes for sunlight to reach us. Maybe we can communicate with the rest of the universe by gravity waves!