When a star explodes in the sky scientists say we are actuall looking back in time????

Question

When a star explodes in the sky scientists say we are actuall looking back in time????
Why is that so?
Whatdo we mean by that??

Answer 1

The reason for saying that is due to the fact that the stars are immensely far away and it takes light a long time to reach us here on Earth.

For example, the light from the sun is 8 minutes old because that's how long it takes the light to travel between the sun and the earth. If something were to happen to the sun, we wouldn't see it until 8 minutes later.

Now extend this idea to stars that are thousands of light years away. (a light year is a measure of distance, it is how far light travels in one year).

If a star is 10 light years away, then an event on that star would not be seen on Earth until 10 years after the fact.

Answer 2

Well,have u heard of big bang theory.Its a theory accepted by a majority of scientiest that says that the solar systems and the galaxies were formed after a big explosion in the space.Maybe that is what these scientiest meant by saying that we are actually looking back in time on seeing an exploding star in the sky.(for further referance type big bang theory in google.Happy researching)

Answer 3

The stars are so far away that by the time light reaches us from the event, it is been many years, so what we are seeing actually took place in the past. If the even were close enough to be seen in "real time" would all soon be dead because it would kill us and destroy the planet in a fiery blast.

Answer 4

While speed of light in vacuum is the fastest we know in this universe, light still needs to traverse distances measured in thousands of lightyears. This means that if something happened that far away, thousands of years ago, we will only notice the flash of the explosion when it reaches us.

It is similar to the delay the sound of thunder has compared to the flash of the lightning. Both originate at the same time, but hit the observer at different times.

Answer 5

Because it happened a long time ago and it is only now that we are seeing the light from the star. It can take light millions of years to reach us travelling at 167,000 miles per second.

Answer 6

the stars in the sky are very very far away...millions and gazillions of kilometres away.
now, we "see" something only when light from that thing(usually reflected off a source of light, or due to its own light, as with stars), reaches our eye.
light travels at a very large yet finite speed....this means it will always take time to reach us. but in most real cases the time is too small for us to notice.

but, when distances like trillions of kilometres occur, light can take as many as 100,000 years to reach your eye. in fact, light from our sun takes 8 minutes to reach us!
so, the light you see from the stars today is actually light they sent out years and years ago...
thats why they say we're looking back in time...we see the sky as it was in the past!

Answer 7

it is a snapshot of the past.
that snapshot cannot travel beyond the speed of light.
you cannot look at the present stars in the sky in its updated form.
it is like a delayed TV telecast; delayed by years, millions of years.
dozens of supernovas could be happening this very minute and we'll only know about it in the future.
that's pretty much the real story.

Answer 8

Light is slow,it only travels bout 186,000 miles per second.If the object you are looking at is kinda far away,it takes a while for the light(what you see) to get to you.

Answer 9

commonly it jogs my memory that i'm rather tiny and insignificant contained in the scheme of factors, yet i'm grateful that I exist and may take excitement in the impressive thing about the universe. i might want to by no potential comprehend each thing; yet i'm content cloth to discover attractiveness in secret and settle for my barriers as a man or woman.

Answer 10

To take it further, every time we use our eyes, we are looking back in time. It takes time for light to travel to our eyes, so the things we see are in the past.