If there is a planet which is 20 Light years away from earth, and I'm looking at it now. Would it be that I'm looking at the planet which is 20 years ago?
2007-05-08 02:51:36 · 13 answers · asked by Jude 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Yes! What you are seeing was an image being sent at the speed of light from 20 years ago. In another 20 years, if you were to look at the same planet again, you would be seeng it as how it looks now.
2007-05-08 02:54:50 · answer #1 · answered by Pseudonym45 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, that is the whole mechanics of the light year. Light travels at X a second; turn on a light in your house and in a second, the light from that lamp will have traveled 186,000 miles. In an hour light travels 670,616,629 miles; in a year, light travels 6,000,000,000,000 miles; if something is 20 light years away, the light from that object when seen on earth last night left that star or planet 20 years ago. We cannot see how the star looks right now.
By the way, the sun is 93 million miles away; light fro the sun
takes 8 minutes to get here. If the sun blew up RIGHT NOW, we would not know about it for 8 minutes.
2007-05-08 03:14:27 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes............it takes the light 20 years to get here so your eyes can see it, so you are actually seeing 20 years into the past.
If that planet had blown up 10 years ago, we would not see the explosion for another 10 years. So, some stars you see in the sky may not even be there, as you are acutally looking back into time, depending on how far the star is away from earth.
2007-05-08 02:57:47 · answer #3 · answered by engineeringguru 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, you would see it as it was 20 years ago if it is 20 light years away. Of course, you can't see anything that far away. Even with a big telescope, even with the Hubble Space Telescope, you could not magnify a planet enough to see any detail. Anyway, Hubble cannot even see planets orbiting other stars because the glaring light from the star overwhelms the view of the planet.
2007-05-08 03:14:31 · answer #4 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, Because it is 20 light years away, it take the light 20 years to each your eyes from the light source.
Therefore you are looking at '20 year old light' In theor7y, the star you are viewing may have blown up, but we do not know about it yet!!
2007-05-08 04:19:27 · answer #5 · answered by Wedge 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, you're exactly right..! If a planet, star, or anything else is 20 light years away, that means it has taken light from there 20 years to get here. Even just looking at the sun you're seeing it as it was about 8 minutes ago because that's how long it takes light to get here from there.
When you really think about, we never see anything *NOW* When you're checking out the great-looking babe standing just a few feet away you're seeing her as she *was* a nano-second or so ago.
2007-05-08 02:58:33 · answer #6 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes. You are seeing light reflected from that planet 20 years ago.
2007-05-08 02:54:02 · answer #7 · answered by JLynes 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah - so if I stand on that planet right now and wave at you (and you could see me) you would only be able to see me in 20 years' time.
2007-05-08 02:57:30 · answer #8 · answered by maverick 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes,but that planet is twenty tears older now.
Anywhere you look you are looking back in time.
Even a person in the same room with you is billionths of a second in the past
2007-05-08 03:01:13 · answer #9 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
20-30 years interior the previous grew to alter into notably plenty indoors the path of the hair metallic and new wave era. So keytars and an excellent form of aggressive looking guitars like Destroyers and Flying Vs. a number of of that began going away with grunge and going cut back returned to the established keyboards and electric powered guitars like the Gibson Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster which have been staples of rock for some years. of direction, there are continually staggering bands who will placed across forth staggering gadgets like Sitars, Harp Guitars, Gongs, Trumpets, and whatnot... yet none of those are new gadgets. on the instantaneous... it is the pc it is the super element. 20-30 years interior the previous... all a truthfully pc might desire to do grew to alter into MIDI (there have been drum machines like the 808 and synthesizers... yet i does now not call them computers). yet now... you're able to create an entire band on your pc at abode.
2016-12-11 03:40:31 · answer #10 · answered by laranjeira 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋