JohnnyWishbone Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Are the people (Alien's) living on another planet close enough to observe the light from our star seeing our past or our future? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wertbag Posted May 26, 2019 Share Posted May 26, 2019 On 5/23/2019 at 1:01 AM, JohnnyWishbone said: Are the people (Alien's) living on another planet close enough to observe the light from our star seeing our past or our future? We have no idea where intelligent life is in the universe, so have no way to guess the distance the light from our sun will have to travel before reaching a set of eyes. If there is life watching then yes they would be seeing light that has been travelling for billions of years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyWishbone Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 On 5/27/2019 at 5:32 AM, Wertbag said: We have no idea where intelligent life is in the universe, so have no way to guess the distance the light from our sun will have to travel before reaching a set of eyes. If there is life watching then yes they would be seeing light that has been travelling for billions of years. So if there are other being's observing this part of the galaxy, then to them we are like extinct already? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdelsolray Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 2 hours ago, JohnnyWishbone said: So if there are other being's observing this part of the galaxy, then to them we are like extinct already? No. Electromagnetic radiation from Earth solely based on a human origin (e.g., radio and television signals) takes time to reach planets around other stars, how long depends on how far away that arrival point is from Earth. In all cases, a deciphering intelligence at such arrival point will only receive dated information, relative to to any new information being generated on Earth. If that "other being's" technology was advanced enough to capture visible light at phenomenally high resolution, it might witness an extinction event on Earth, but again, it would take time for that information to reach the observer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyWishbone Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 2 hours ago, sdelsolray said: No. Electromagnetic radiation from Earth solely based on a human origin (e.g., radio and television signals) takes time to reach planets around other stars, how long depends on how far away that arrival point is from Earth. In all cases, a deciphering intelligence at such arrival point will only receive dated information, relative to to any new information being generated on Earth. If that "other being's" technology was advanced enough to capture visible light at phenomenally high resolution, it might witness an extinction event on Earth, but again, it would take time for that information to reach the observer. You must be one of them, you seem to know a lot about these Alien folk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 Any alien life would observe us exactly as we are observing them. So if they are 100 light years from us then the light they see is one hundred years old. They would be seeing into our "past" but for them it would be the present since the light just arrived (and vice-versa us observing them). So however many light X's they are away (ie. minutes, days, months, years) then that is now far in the "past" they are observing. In that sense we are seeing light that is about 8 or so minutes old (or in the "past" if you prefer) from our own Sun. To be able to actually see minute detail, like if they were 66 million light years away, and then to actually be able to see the dinosaurs on the ground roaming about would take a lot of resolving power and even then I don't know if would actually be possible for a variety of reasons. Being able to know the composition of the atmosphere is possible but actually observing anything beyond what we might call a macro view of the planet (ie. the Big Blue Marble sort of view but nothing close to seeing plants and animals even large ones) I would think would probably be pretty much out of the question. Just have a look at this What if? XKCD. mwc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyWishbone Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 1 hour ago, mwc said: Any alien life would observe us exactly as we are observing them. So if they are 100 light years from us then the light they see is one hundred years old. They would be seeing into our "past" but for them it would be the present since the light just arrived (and vice-versa us observing them). So however many light X's they are away (ie. minutes, days, months, years) then that is now far in the "past" they are observing. In that sense we are seeing light that is about 8 or so minutes old (or in the "past" if you prefer) from our own Sun. To be able to actually see minute detail, like if they were 66 million light years away, and then to actually be able to see the dinosaurs on the ground roaming about would take a lot of resolving power and even then I don't know if would actually be possible for a variety of reasons. Being able to know the composition of the atmosphere is possible but actually observing anything beyond what we might call a macro view of the planet (ie. the Big Blue Marble sort of view but nothing close to seeing plants and animals even large ones) I would think would probably be pretty much out of the question. Just have a look at this What if? XKCD. mwc Well that was very informative, thankyou. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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