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What does it mean when people look up at the stars and say seeing them how they were millions of years ago?
Wiki User
∙ 8y ago
Generally speaking, this is a gross exaggeration. You see the stars as they were, at most, a few centuries ago. The reason is the light travels at a limited speed. In other words, it takes time to reach you. Distance between stars is measure in light years, which is the distance that light travels in a year. For example, if you look at a star that is 100 light years away, the light you see now left it 100 years ago. The stars you see at night are within the small part of our galaxy that is closest to us. Those stars are at most a few hundred light years away. A handful are less than 10 light years away. The only thing you can with the naked eye see as it was millions of years ago is the Andromeda galaxy, a massive collection of stars 2.5 million light years away. With a telescope you can see farther galaxies.
Wiki User
∙ 8y ago
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When we look in the night sky are we seeing the universe as it is?
No. We are seeing as it was. The light we are seeing now was first emitted some time ago. We see the other planets in our solar system as they were a few minutes to a few hours ago. We see stars as they were a few years to a few centuries ago. We see other galaxies as they were millions to billions of years ago.
Why does the position of stars seem to change as seasons change?
The earth is rotating around the sun. Therefore the position of other stars (although millions of light years away) are in different orientation to that of the earth.
Is steel made of living things?
No, nor is it made of things that used to be living. Iron is created in stars like our Sun, and millions or billions of years later makes up a good part of planets, other stars, and so forth. Then people smelt the iron and in the process, make steel from it.
What crystal is millions of years old?
Amber is a fossiled tree resin, which is millions of years old
Are all stars the same distance from the earth?
No two planets within our solar system have the same exact size. However, Earth and Venus are quite close - their diameters differ by only 652km.
How you can know some parts of the universe look a million years ago?
some of the stars we see in the universe took millions of years to get here - we are seeing what it looked like a million years ago.
What is the lifespan of most stars?
Millions Of Years
When we look in the night sky are we seeing the universe as it is?
No. We are seeing as it was. The light we are seeing now was first emitted some time ago. We see the other planets in our solar system as they were a few minutes to a few hours ago. We see stars as they were a few years to a few centuries ago. We see other galaxies as they were millions to billions of years ago.
Do stars with less mass live millions of years?
No. Low mass stars live hundreds of billions to trillions of years. The highest mass stars may live only a few million years.
How many of the stars you see are actually dead stars?
The odds are about 1 in 5 because stars live for millions and millions of years,and i doubt we will be alive by the time one does!(unless that star was born years ago) and the sun is a star too, but you don't have to worry about the sun going out for another million years!
Does it sometimes take millions of years for starlight to reach earth?
Not for the stars you can see without a telescope. All of the stars you see at night are within a few hundred light years of Earth, so it does not take the light more than a few hundred years to reach us. There are stars in other galaxies that are millions or even billions of light years away. That light does take millions to billions of years to reach us, though the stars are too far away for us to thee them individually.
How is it possible to see light from a star that is no longer shining?
As light can take millions of years to reach us, then some stars we "see" can actually be dead but we are seeing the light from them as they were many years earlier. So yes, it is possible to see light from a star that is no longer shining.
How long will wolf rayet stars burn?
Wolf-Rayet stars are massive stars that are very hot.Because of this they will be VERY short lived and will only have a life time of millions of years as apposed to "normal" stars like our own Sun which will survive for billions of years.
WHEN HAVE astronauts to exploreD a star?
its impossible to explore stars they're millions of miles away years in fact
Do changes in stars take place over billions of year?
Yes, Millions/Billion(S) of years.
Has the number of stars changed?
Yes, stars are constantly being created and destroyed. Stars can last millions or billions of years, but there are so many of them out there that it's pretty common for them to come and go.
How long does a star usually last until it dies?
The biggest stars last only millions, the medium-sized stars last billions, and the smallest stars can last trillions of years.
