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Because the speed of light is finite (around 186,000 miles per second) and the stars are so distant, it takes a long time for the light to reach the telescope from the stars - at least 4.2 years. Many objects are millions of light years distant, meaning that what we see in the sky is from the distant past.

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Q: Why do people say looking at stars is like looking in the past?
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Continue Learning about Earth Science

How do you warn people that a hurricane is coming?

In the past people were informed by the word of the people, they would get information from other people. if the answer is not correct tell me what time you r thinking of like maybe what century.


How can scientists today learn about Earth's past climate?

By looking at the air trapped inside bubbles, fossils, and tree rings.


What did people think about the earth in the past?

There have been all kinds of cosmologies in past civilisations. In ancient times, at the dawn of western civilisation, it was commonly thought that the Earth was a flat surface, covered by a dome, suspended in water. Later, a few centuries BCE, the Greek figured out that the Earth was spherical, and were even able to roughly determine its circumference. They still believed that the Earth was at the center of everything, though, and that the Sun, stars and planets (which, according to the Greek, were simply "wandering stars") revolved around the Earth. It wasn't until the sixteenth century CE that Copernicus published a heliocentric model, challenging the geocentric model upheld by philosophers and religious authorities until that time. From then on, our models of the solar system became increasingly accurate, culminating in our current understanding.


How can you determine if you live in an area where earthquakes are likely to occur?

You can determine if you live in a area were earthquakes are likely to occur by going on line and looking for past seismographs in your area.


How you come to know about life existing on earth in past?

People come to know about life existing on planet Earth in the past by studying bones and fossils. These are kept in a databse and are studied by scientists.

Related questions

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People in the past usually studied the stars because they used it to make Calenders and days


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To give people information about something that has been in the past, or something worth looking at, like art.


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His photos showed people what the past was like


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it was pitch black, with shiny stars the 9 planets and the sun and moon.


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Are you looking at past when you look at stars?

Because starlight takes over four years to reach us from even the neaarest star, we can say we are looking into the past when we look at stars. Therefore some stars might have exploded already but we would not know until their light reached us. The delay in the apparent positions of Jupiter's four main moons at times when Jupiter was far away was used by Ole Romer to make an early estimate of the speed of light.


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