I've heard variations from 2,000 to about 4,000 light years but I'd like it narrowed down a bit. I know the Andromeda galaxy can be seen on clear nights and it's at a distance of 2.5 milion light years but I mean individual stars.
Interestingly, when we look at such an object we are seeing it as it was 2.5 million years ago not as it is today. If something happened to the galaxy tomorrow, say it mysteriously vanished, people on earth would not know about it for over two million years.
2007-05-11 13:09:41 · 6 answers · asked by Ellesmere 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Measuring the distance to individual stars is an imprecise science, but one candidate for most distant naked-eye star is Mu Cephei. Most estimates put it close to 3000 light years away. So on a cosmic scale, all the stars we can see with the naked eye are quite close.
2007-05-11 14:01:31 · answer #1 · answered by injanier 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I saw a show at the Hayden Planetarium a few years ago (which I highly recommend btw) The point of view camera pulled back away from our galaxy and they put up an over-lay graphic of a small sphere representing all the stars you can see with the naked eye and it looked like a medium sized marble near the edge of a Frisbee (the milky way)... I was stunned, we can only see a small fraction of the stars in our galaxy with out a telescope, and if you want to see the farthest stars in our galaxy, you need a huge powerful telescope on top of a mountain! Space is big. Really big.
2007-05-11 14:27:46 · answer #2 · answered by eggman 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The farthest object is M31, the Andromeda Galaxy at 2.5 million light years. The farthest visible star is probably Eta Carinae at 7500 light years (apparent magnitude varies, it can range from -.8 to 7.9).
2016-05-21 00:29:01 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes that would be interesting, but maybe we can see I don't know from a couple of thousand light years is my best guess with today's condition. We used to couldn't even see the top of the washington monument let alone stars. But the pollution is hindering our sight, but most people don't bother to look up at the stars.
2007-05-11 13:14:15 · answer #4 · answered by t_nguyen62791 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
and yes its probably right too...you see every single star in the sky is about some thousand light-years away...the dimmest ones are probably millions to billions light-years away.
2007-05-11 13:19:29 · answer #5 · answered by al_that_2_u 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
may b...uptil which lights omitted by stars can reach our eyes..v cud c those stars..n which lights wud nt b able to reach v cant c 'em.
2007-05-11 13:15:20 · answer #6 · answered by patel j 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋