Looking back in Time?

Okay so if somehow i was able to to be placed on a planet 300 light years away from Earth and I had a very powerful telescope. Would I be able to see back in time 300 years?

BlckPdf2011-08-24T14:12:44Z

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Yes. However, you cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Einstein theorized that objects travel through space time at a constant speed. That of light. He said that since light has no mass, it can use all of its energy to travel through space and therefore doesn't travel through time. Everyone else is traveling through space and time. The faster you travel through the space, the less you travel through time.

There is an experiment that shows that the closer you get to light speed, the more time slows down for you. Look up the twin paradox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_paradox

campbelp20022011-08-24T22:39:53Z

Yes. But even from Earth and even without a telescope you are always seeing back in time. When you look at the north star you are looking 433 years into the past, because Polaris is 433 light years away. Of course you can't see any detail on it.

But I suppose you mean to ask if you could watch the first steam-powered ferry making it's first crossing between New York and New Jersey on October 11, 1811. Well in theory yes, but in reality you need to travel much faster than the speed of light to get to that planet soon enough, which is impossible as far as we know, and you would need an impossibly large telescope to see any detail at all.

Anonymous2011-08-24T21:22:46Z

Kinda but see what exacly?...you gotta remember that quanta travels in discrete amounts omnidirectionally from your point of reference dude i.e., it would take another three hundered years for your powerful telescope to see anything on earth...

A better question is if you were on the same planet 300 L. years away and you picked up a continuous radio signal from Earth would you be able to see back in time...

popovoleg702011-08-24T23:17:01Z

Telescope do not make faster the speed. To see Jupiter at most distance from Earth need one hour that is distance itself.You never get more energy them mc^2 from mass.You never can move faster then c. But with scientific methods (archeology,photos,spectralanalys,red shift,half decay,e^x,painting and on...) one can realize and even see any event in past as if it is on line.Remember that without information (reconnaissance) you never can see something somewhere even with super vehicle or accidentally only. So if you want you will see all. First was been word or information.And now without pronounced word bred you can't eat it.Very hope you understand! ( once former President was been sorrow on photo then you can't make him smiling any more)

Jacob2011-08-24T21:15:41Z

Yes, but your means of getting to that planet would be scientifically impossible (for now....). This also means if you go to a planet and wait 300 Earth years, you could see earth today.

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