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There are planets and other stuff light years away from us. So basically, if you have a star that is 10 light years away and you look at it, you are seeing it as it was, 10 years ago. You are sorta traveling into time and seeing the past.

Now imagine this: If we found a way to travel away from earth, 2010 light years away in less then 2010 years (or more, to make up for the time it may take to get there, does not have to be instant) and had a very powerful telescope on this vehicle, and dropped mirrors along the way where required to dodge objects in the way, we could look down on earth, and see stuff that happened 2010 years ago, like the birth of Jesus assuming all your angles of vision are correct and nothing is blocking the view.

I want a flux capacitor now.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:5201, old post ID:39521

That somehow makes sense... Interesting thought to say the least

But I don't think any complete object or person will ever travel at light speed or in this case much faster to not only get that distance but also get ahead of the light that holds the time frame you want to see.

So to see 1995 you would have to travel a distance of 2010 light years in only 1995 actual years time to catch upto that 15 year old light.
The light had a 15 year head start so you would have to arrive at the same point in space at the same time of the light to see exactly 15 years back. Assuming we can travel lightspeed plus a small % faster, The year would then be 4005??? You wouldn't be alive... So to see 1995 with only 1 year passing you would have to travel 16 light years away from earth rather then 1995 years putting your speed at 16 lightyears a year. Travel 2 years at that speed to look back to 1980. I don't think anything could ever go these speeds if light itself can't. So instant wormhole may be the only way. Travel the same distance that you want to see back.

Not to mention the your mirror can't reflect light it doesn't catch so it can only be dropped in front of the light that holds the time frame you want to view otherwise you would get to your destination on time but would not be looking at earth because the mirror hasn't come into effect yet and won't for many years as the mirrors first refection may have been say the year 2007 assuming it was dropped off while you were only 12 lightyears behind 95... So if you could of dropped a mirror in front of the year 1995 you could have just viewed it from that point in space rather than dropping off the mirror. Making the mirrors useless so we can't view around an object farther back in time then the date the mirror first reflected.

So to see far back enough, The light would not only have to travel a perfectly straight line away from earth to avoid being killed on objects or blurred being reflected but it would also have to live it's distance in years...

So the real question is: How long does light live in lightyears? That's the farthest back anyone will be able to look. Assuming we could of course. And it's still no flux capacitor. Only a window/history book



Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:5201, old post ID:39523