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because when you look into space, the planets are hundreds of thousands of light years away. so, what you are seeing, depending on how many light years away, is seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, even years old. for example, if the sun were to burn out today, it would take another billion years for the earth to receive no more light. hope this helps?

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12y ago
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6mo ago

Looking through a telescope is like looking back in time because light takes time to travel from distant objects to reach us. The farther away an object is, the longer it takes for its light to reach us. Therefore, when we observe distant celestial objects through a telescope, we are actually seeing them as they were in the past, since the light we are observing left those objects long ago.

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Q: Why is looking through a telescope like looking back in time?
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