Question on a way to view our own past.

I wasn't sure where to post this so I figured here would suffice.

I've always had a thought on how to view our own past.

If you traveled out in any direction faster than the speed of light and tracked your distance away from Earth. Could you theoretically turn around, look back and see our past at any given moment? Obviously you would have to have access to technology enabling faster than light travel and also a very powerful telescope but isn't it plausible?

You would be able to pinpoint a particular moment in time by the distance you are away from Earth. Again, in order to "zoom" in to the surface of our planet, you would have to have a pretty high tech telescope. (Although I've seen the Hubble do some pretty remarkable things)


Any thoughts on this?

I am not advanced in Quantum Mechanics or the like, but unless you have some sort of time traveling device you are not going to be able to look into our past in that way. I think there is a law stating that but not too sure. You are still traveling from the present to another location in the present.

reply to post by Golithion


Faster than light travel is impossible with current technology because as the speed of an object traveling space increases, the required energy grows, requiring more fuel, until eventually you'd need an infinitely large ship just to hold the fuel to even attempt it.

BUT....

If we say you do have faster than light travel, you could theoretically move out past the light coming from the object you want to observe. A simple text book example is you shin a flashlight, and travel at the speed of light, or faster, and you can get in front of the beam.

As you move towards the speed of light, time slows for you but not the rest of us. They've proven this with atomic clock experiments with space vehicles. The faster an object travels, the slower time passes compared to the rest of us. You could travel to mars at faster than light and make it in a few hours or whatever, but for us, it's still what 7 years? I don't know the numbers so don't bother complaining about the math.

So I suspect if you were to travel faster than light, turn around, you'd merely be seeing yourself leaving earth?

Actually now that I type that, I'm confused. Stars we can see right now at night might have already died years ago, millions depending on how far we are from them.

Does light travel in a chronological order like say a radio wave? If so, if you can get out far enough I think you could see into the past.

reply to post by phishybongwaters


Thank you for the clarification, but I don't know according to this Prof: www.physlink.com...

If you speed up faster then the speed of light you maybe looking at the future instead of the past/ Or maybe I am just getting confused again, Anyways he has some nice equations and charts to illustrate the point.

To a purely theoretical view here is Sagan on the matter, I take his words with a grain of salt now but here you go: www.pbs.org...

reply to post by AlteredTom


Yes, you can.

For example, when we see the sun, it is actually how the Sun looked about 8 minutes into the past. When we look at the star "Alpha Centauri", it's how Alpha Centauri looked 4 years into the past.

If we were to be able to "instantly" travel to Alpha Centauri, we would be able to see our Sun the way it looked 4 years ago. Of course, as you mentioned, traveling "out there" so fast is the biggest problem with your idea.

But ignoring that (albeit major) issue, then yes -- you would be able to "see our past"

it would not surprise me to see in the future.
so technology that can look back in time.
using a echo or time ripple.

or simple light.
the light reflected from jupiter.
you would need very advanced technology.

it would be kept very secret.
as you could look back to any point in time
and see what some one did.
no more secrets.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


What he said. Also, this concept served as a small plot device in one of my favorite computer games of all time, "Star Trek: A Final Unity" where you must travel at warp speed to look back at a particular star system in order to see something in the past that you couldn't see in the present. It's still Star Trek, but the little nod to actual physics (albeit with the caveat of FTL travel) appealed to me.

Wow, for my first thread, I am very happy to the amount of response I received.

I like the idea of an "echo" or ripple. What I imagine is looking at a reflection off of another body out in space. (ie. Jupiter) But again, just having a strong telescope wouldn't work as you would be still limited to the speed of light. But... If you are able to "pick up" on an echoing light wave, and select just the right frequency to view, maybe this is possible. (?)

As for my idea, you would obviously have to travel "instantly" to a position beyond the light of the event you are trying to view. This is of course following the laws of physics. Just utilizing a concept that's not widely understood.