Question about stars?

Question

Considering stars of millions of light years away, meaning that when we look up and see the stars, we are actually looking at what the stars looked like millions of years ago, how do we know that there are still stars up there.

Answer 1

Although your question is a good one, and we don't really know if they are still there...Let me clear up major point that all of you seem to be missing. When you look up into the night sky...almost all of the stars you see (with the naked eye) are within 1000 light years away. There are only a few exceptions to this. YES you are looking BACK in time, but the fact that most of them are relatively close, increases the likelihood that they are still in fact there. (Stars have long lifetimes.) What is really relevant is there type, size and age combined with it's distance from us. Betelgeuse (In Orion) for example, is a Red-Giant and only 427 LY away. This star could blow up at any time (Super Nova) or maybe it all ready has and we don't know it yet. Find this star and look at it when you want to think about the subject of this question. I hope you pick my answer for helping to teach all of you the correct facts. I gave your Good Star question a Star.

Answer 2

Astronomers are actually only able to give relative guesses to how old something is. So given maybe the size of the star, how long it took for the light to reach us and maybe how brightly it shines or the type of energy it gives off, you could guess at the stars age. Astronomers can also guess at about how long certain types and sizes of stars live. So given all the above information and a lot of educated guessing, scientists may know what stars still exists and what stars don't.

Its pretty amazing to think how incomprehensibly large the universe is, that we can witness something that happened thousands, millions and even billions of years ago.

Answer 3

We don't.

In 1054, when amateur Chinese astronomers witnessed the Crab Nebula explosion, they were looking at a star 6,400 light years away! That means that people since the Copper Age in the Fertile Crescent were looking at a star that didn't exist. Of course, it existed in the form of hyper heated ionized gases and a dense Pulsar core, but they were looking a star that had been dead for thousands of years.

We too may be experiencing the exact thing. Many stars we see at night may be dead and gone or blown up in spectacular cosmic firework fashion. And indeed, we would not see the end result for many many years to come. We have no way of knowing which ones do and which don't, so we simply go by what we see.

Answer 4

With stars: looks CAN be deceiving. Ever see a star go out? That's the last of it's light, sent out millions of years ago.....and now, it's moment has passed....and we see that star went nova---and a deadly black hole lurks out in deep infinite space.

A radio astronomer can tell you if that bright star you still see lit up is really there or not.

Answer 5

We don't know how many of those stars exist now. Maybe some no longer exist. But the stars won't disappear all at the same time.

If you go to the beach without your cell phone, you don't know if some of your friends, neighbor or just known people were die while you was swimming. But surely many would be OK.

Answer 6

We don't. The star could have gone nova a thousand years ago, and we wouldn't find out for a long time.

Answer 7

We don't, any more than we know the sun is still there. The light from the sun left 8 minutes ago. All we really know is that it was there 8 minutes ago.

Answer 8

We don't know. You are using you mind in a good way, keep it up.

Answer 9

we don't really know if that star exists now or not

Answer 10

Err, my brain hurts trying to comprehend what you just said.
You should be an astronomer and study it.