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Could you look into the past, see back in time if you were able to travel far enough away from the Earth......?

Could you look into the past, see back in time if you were able to travel far enough away from the Earth, to be able to see light from time passed, provided you had a telescope powerful enough to see across the vast distant of space to look at Earth?

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  • 9 years ago
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    Since you are not able to travel at the speed of light, or faster, you could get really far away from earth, and then look back to see what was happening after you left, . . . almost.

    The problem is the diffraction limit of telescopes, and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. You would never be able to see with enough resolution and light grasp to make out much more than the planet, its oceans and continents. Tracking individual cities would be a problem, and anything smaller would be (nearly) impossible. By the time the light reached you, the uncertainty of where it started from would make everything a big blur.

    In all, your proposal would be a waste of time. You will never be able to look into what is already past for you now, only the past of the future!

  • 9 years ago

    Only if you could magically travel faster than the speed of light.

    Otherwise the light that left the earth at the moment you left, would be ahead of you.

    And the only light you could see would be events that happened well after you left.

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