What would we see if we were to discover a planet exactly 1 lightyear away and we see a gigantic mirror in this planet pointing directly to earth at all times (i know this sounds impossible but just bear with me). If the planet is 1 lightyear away, then when we looked at the planet for the first time and looked into the mirror then we would see earth as it was 1 year ago right? I am not that much into science but my basic knowledge leads me to think that if its 1 lightyear away then it takes 1 year for the planet to receive the light from earth, so thats why we see earth as it was 1 year ago right? please correct me if i am wrong, thanks.
2007-06-18 09:20:26 · 13 answers · asked by Cipher 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
2 years, one for the light to trave to the mirror, and one for the light to travel from the mirror to earth
2007-06-18 09:25:55 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Well it depends upon where you were standing when you looked into the mirror...
if you were standing upon the Earth and you looked at the Earth's reflection in the mirror somehow, the picture you saw would be 2 years old (one year for it to travel there, one year for it to travel back).
If you were on that distant planet and looked into the mirror, or looked at the Earth, what you saw would be one year old at a distance of one light year.
The problem is that Earth does not radiate light. It only reflects light from the Sun. So, the view of Earth light reflected back to Earth again would be very dim indeed, having been a collection of scattered light reflected from a mirror and scattered again in the process (as opposed to being concentrated in a beam with all of the light energy of the same polarity).
2007-06-18 16:18:01 · answer #2 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
YES , you are correct. It would take 2 years for the image to leave earth and return, but because you are looking at a reflection of what took place 1 year ago, then 1 year ago is what you would see. It would be like sending a snapshot picture on a 2 year trip, although it is 2 years later the picture would not have changed.
2007-06-18 13:26:49 · answer #3 · answered by butterscotch 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We'd see Earth as it was 2 years ago, it took the original image 1 year to reach the planet then 1 year to bounce back to us. Both images are reflections of light, and since the planet is 1 light year (the distance light travels in 1 year) away 1 light year X 2 = 2 light years.
2007-06-18 09:31:39 · answer #4 · answered by Efnissien 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It seems that the image we see would be 2 years old. This
"snapshot" would take one year to travel to the mirror and another year to return.
If you want to have some real fun, try imagining this mirror mounted on a starship which is receding at, let's say, 99.99% of the speed of light. Sorry to bring that up, I'm just feeling a little mischievous right now
2007-06-18 09:27:01 · answer #5 · answered by Robert K 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You would see the Earth as it was two years ago, you would see the planet with the mirror on it as it was one year ago.
2007-06-21 13:43:05 · answer #6 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually......... The light you'd see would be from 2 years ago. It takes 1 year to get from Earth to your 'mirror planet' and then one year to return ☺
Doug
2007-06-18 09:25:16 · answer #7 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
We would see the Earth as it existed two years ago. The light reflected from the mirror would be a year old when it was reflected, but a further year old when it reached Earth after the return trip.
2007-06-18 09:24:57 · answer #8 · answered by JLynes 5 · 5⤊ 0⤋
That depends on what is meant by the word "unexpected". Even on Earth, if you expect the sun to move one way, and it actually moves another way, then that's unexpected. Mercury, Venus, and Uranus all have strange movements of the sun. On Mercury at some places, an observer would see the Sun rise and then gradually increase in apparent size as it slowly moved toward the zenith. At that point the Sun would stop, briefly reverse course, and stop again before resuming its path toward the horizon and decreasing in apparent size. All the while the stars would be moving three times faster across the sky. Observers at other points on Mercury's surface would see different but equally bizarre motions. On Venus, the sun rises in the west and sets in the west -- except that you can't see the sun at all because of the dense clouds. For Uranus, there are times of the year when the sun hardly moves at all. At other times, it moves in a normal west-to-east motion. Then half an Uranus year later, it moves east-to-west.
2016-05-18 23:19:05 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Close but no quite. It would take the light one year to get there and another year to get back meaing that its 2 years not 1.
2007-06-18 15:14:41 · answer #10 · answered by Mr. Smith 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋