Imagine, we could establish if certain historical events were true, or, at least, if they happened in the way claimed. We could investigate some of the worlds great mysteries and beliefs for factual evidence.
The reason, at least in theory, that we may be able to see the Earth back in time from somewhere in deep space, is because light travels at the incredible speed of 186,000 miles a second. Astronauts on the moon, for example, as they look back, see the Earth as it was 2 seconds before, as that is how long it takes for light to travel from there to their eyes. And the light from the sun takes 8 minutes to make its journey to us.
If we were able to perhaps, teleport out in the deep uncharted areas of space, what historical events would see? We can, however, look out into space with the aid of mega-strong telescopes and see past events in space. For example, we might say that Supernova 1987a occurred in 1987, but the event actually happened 190,000 years before! It just took that long for the light explosion to reach Earth.
The furthest astronomers are currently able to see is about 18,000,000,000 light-years away, which is like looking back in time 18 billion years ago. And, believe it or not, scientists claim that if an alien was located 65 million light-years away and they could see Earth through a powerful telescope, they would see the dinosaurs.
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| The Ant planetary nebula. Ejecting gas from the dying central star shows symmetrical patterns unlike the chaotic patterns of ordinary explosions. |
Books To read
How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God, by Michael Shermer
