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by Joseph Milanese on October 8th, 2004

Joseph Milanese

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If a star is light years away so it takes years for its light to reach us, can scientists tell if the star is actually still there and that it hasn't gone supernova or died out?

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  • by f0ul_Oli on October 13th, 2004

    f0ul_Oli

    They would be able to guesstimate if the star was still there by looking at the light coming from it and working out how long it would take to die. If this was longer than the amount of time it took for the light to get to us, then the star is still there.

    A lot of astronomy is just good quality guesswork!

    Comments

    • If the star would take a mill yrs to die, but it is 5 mill light yrs away, you can't tell.

      Joseph Milanese

      by Joseph Milanese on October 15th, 2004

    • Joseph, if a star only has an estimate life of 10^6 yrs and it's over 5x10^6 lyr away, then odds are it's gone.

      Glenn Blaylock

      by Glenn Blaylock on November 21st, 2004

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