On a clear night and looking at distant stars,?

Are we really looking at what was and not, what is.On a clear night and looking at distant stars,?
Absolutely. The stars you see out there in the night sky are thousands, or millions of light years away, and in order for the light that enters your eye to get here it must go on a journey taking the same amount of time as the number of light years it is away from us. It is pretty amazing.On a clear night and looking at distant stars,?
Short and to the point.

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Yes. It's a history lesson. They could all go bang within ten seconds of you looking and you'd never know for years, if ever.
The speed of light could mean that some of the things we are seeing could be gone. The light from the stars takes years to reach us, so the star could have been destroyed years ago, and we wouldnt know untill all the light had reached us.


The light from the sun takes 8 years to reach us.
The light we see from stars has left the star light years ago. So your right dude.
so they say but it seems hard to believe.
Yes, in a way. Back in time, some thousands of years ago.
Yes. That is true of the Moon (2 seconds) and Sun (8 minutes), too.
We are looking at ';what was' because these stars are so far away the time it takes for he light to reach us...well we could be looking at deceased stars...so it's really not what is.
Yep, the stars are so many light years away that light from the major constellations takes thousands upon thousands of years to reach us.





If you're into your astronomy, you will know about the ';Pillars of creation';, giant gas clouds in a nebula, it has been postulated that a nearby Giant star has already gone supernova and has destroyed them by basically blowing all their gas away, however, due to the enormous distance to these objects, it will take the light thousands of years to reach us.





So when you look at the Hubble photos of them, just remember that they aren't there anymore sorry. But we wont be able to see their destruction for many thousands of years.
Yes. The planet Earth is 7 light years from the nearest star, which means that the light you are viewing was generated by a star about 7 years ago.
light bends due to gravitation, the position of stars is really located in a different position. what we are really lookingis billion year old light.
A little bit of both. When we look at the stars, we're receiving light that is millions of years old. The youngest light that we receive, other than that of the sun, is about 4.36 years old. It's possible that none of those stars exist anymore. But as long as we continue getting light from those stars, nighttime will be a beautiful thing.
we are looking at howthey were not how they are because light can only travel so fast.And it takes light a long time to get to our planet
Nope.......watch the science channel some time.....very interesting stuff
Yes.





But it is just like where there is a loud bang a few hundred yards away and there is a delay before you hear it - are you hearing what was, and not what is? yes.
Yes, that is what I have heard, when you see the light from a Star is take years to reach our plannet, so basically we are seeing what was.
Absolutely, but personally I am really sad of that idea.
You're looking at what was happening, the time it took the light to travel here - ago, if that makes sense ! ! !
Yes, we are looking at the past. Strange, huh?? By the time the light from stars reaches our eyes here on Earth, all of those stars may have changed already. Personally, I sort of like the thought of it...