If the technology existed today, that we could build a camera that traveled so fast, it got 2000 light years in one second, couldn’t the camera view earth 2000 years ago.
Example: If the earth blew up in the year 2000, and we launched a camera 2000 light years away in the year 4000, and it got to the destination in like one second, and it relayed information in one second, couldn’t we view the earth exploding?
Yes. We could do exactly as you say.
However, we couldn’t see what’s going ON on earth, because there is no camera that would have enough resolution to make out anything smaller than a few hundred kilometers across at that distance.
HOWEVER:
It is important to note that it is impossible to move anything faster than the speed of light. In fact, it is impossible to move anything with mass AT the speed of light. So while your thought experiment about what we could see is valid, in reality, it can’t happen.
It is also impossible to relay information at faster than the speed of light, since electromagnetic waves (like radio and light) have a maximum speed equal to the speed of light.
Travel faster than c is impossible.
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Yes. We could do exactly as you say.
However, we couldn’t see what’s going ON on earth, because there is no camera that would have enough resolution to make out anything smaller than a few hundred kilometers across at that distance.
HOWEVER:
It is important to note that it is impossible to move anything faster than the speed of light. In fact, it is impossible to move anything with mass AT the speed of light. So while your thought experiment about what we could see is valid, in reality, it can’t happen.
It is also impossible to relay information at faster than the speed of light, since electromagnetic waves (like radio and light) have a maximum speed equal to the speed of light.
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sounds like you don’t even understand what 1 light year means.
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Assume we could shoot a camera thru a wormhole and POW its 2000 light years away — what we would be looking st would be different that what we see here – what we see on earth is light that is 2000 years old – the camera would see what ever object in real time.
Part 2 of your question ,, YES — if the earth blew up and we sent a camera and a guy ( of course ) to a distance of 2000 light years away he could watch the earth blow up cause he traveled faster than the speed of light – however he would have to wait 2000 years to see it.
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It would "see" what would be going on at the current time at that point, but it would still take 2000 years minimum to get that information back to us, assuming it was to be transmitted. Thus you would not have any advantage, even if that scenario was possible.
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If such technology existed, it would violate what we know to be the laws of the universe (nothing can move faster than the speed of light), so we’d have a lot more to rethink than just your query.
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NO
there’s a difference between time travel and light years
do some research
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"…If the earth blew up in the year 2000, and we launched a camera 2000 light years away in the year 4000…"
How we gonna launch a camera in the year 4000 if the Earth blew up in the year 2000?
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Most certainly. If we have that kind of technology, your idea must work. Though many think such technology (travel faster than light) is impossible, who knows what future has in store for us ? Radio and TV would have seemed impossible/unimaginable about 2 centuries back.
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that technology is impossible. it violates the laws of physics, nothing can travel at the speed of light.
EDIT: ramshi, its not a question of what technology can bring. its the fact that if anything traveled at light speed it would have infinite mass and gravity, and require and infinite amount of energy and time. none of those 4 things are possible.
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Wow man, some of these freaks are harsh…..good question though, most of the people who actually answered you question are perfectly right. Now if we had the ability to get a probe 2000LYrs away in one second and had used the same tech to get the signal from that probe to us instantly, then no, we would not see 2000 years ago, we would see what was going on right then…..but if we pointed the camera toward earth, the camera would see what was going on 2000 years ago on earth…..but this is a very hypothetical question being that we disregard the time it take to travel vast distances……good question though
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Okay…Check this out.
1.) If we sent a camera to some location that was 2000
Light Years away, and it actually got there, it would have taken far, far, far longer than one second to do so.
2.) Travel at the speed of light is impossible for any man made contraption.
3.) However, if it were possible to travel at the speed of light, by the very definition of the words that are being used, traveling at the speed of light, the camera would have taken 2000 years to get there – not one second.
4.) And, assuming you would send the photos back by radio transmitter, radio signals travel at the speed of light also.
Therefore you would need:
2000 Years for the camera to reach the distant location
(traveling on a spacecraft moving at the speed of light).
Plus
2000 years for the pictures radioed back to reach the Earth
which is 2000 Light Years away when the spacecraft transmitter began transmitting.
So, the information in the radio signals would be 4000 years old (the pictures) when received on Earth (from an impossibly fast spacecraft).
The fastest spacecraft man has built so far have traveled at between 25,000 and 50,000 Miles PER HOUR.
That speed is nowhere near the speed of light which is
186,000 Miles PER SECOND.
You are talking about velocities of travel that are stated in two totally different measurements of time. If you place them both into MILES PER SECOND…then:
Light = 186,000 Miles Per Second.
25,000 Mph Space Craft = 6.9444 Miles Per Second
50,000 Mph space Craft = 13.8888 Miles per Second
There are Six Trillion Miles in one light year.
You suggested 2000 light years
which would be 12,000 Trillion Miles.
To see how long a real space craft might take to get there,
divide:
12,000 Trillion Miles by 50,000 Mph and you will get an answer in hours of flight time…
divide that by 24 hrs/day x 365 days/year = 8,760 hours/year
and you could express the total 50,000 Mph flight time in years.
Regards,
Zah
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>If we launched a camera 2000 light years away and it got there in one second, couldn’t we view 2000 years ago?
Yes. The problem is, according to our knowledge of physics, moving faster than light is completely impossible.
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1. Travel faster than C (the speed of light) is not impossible. Gravity causes space to curve if we (so far we can’t) create a gravitational field strong enough then we alter space effectively shortening the distance between two points. Then travel the shorter distance at sub-light speed as it is true matter can not travel faster than the speed of light directly, but it can theoretically indirectly.
2. You would need A.) A camera 2000 light years away B.) A camera of sufficient resolution and C.) A way to view the data it is sending. So your scenario is only possible if not viewing the data from Earth which wouldn’t exist then (It blew up). But if we where 200,000,000 light years away right now with a camera pointed at Earth we could theoretically see dinosaurs walking the earth(provided they did then), but we would only be looking back in time unable to alter what we saw but it would be great for seeing history unfold. It would still however be history.
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If you could do it those things would happen
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Perhaps the point you were making is can we actually view the past by looking into space, whether we look out or someone looks back at us. Actually, that is the only way we can look back in time.
When we look at a large spiral galaxy such as the Andromeda, we are actually looking at it as it looked over a million years ago, since it is over a million light years away and the light we see takes that long to reach earth. So in essence, we are looking back in time.
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