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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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Answers. 4 helpful answers below.

  • 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!

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  • by texdaman on November 30th, 2005

    texdaman

    An unnamed star was seen to go supernova in 1054 AD. This star was appx. 6300 lightyears away, so the explosion actually occured about 7300 years ago. we didn't see it until a thousand years ago.

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  • by tjtx41 on January 27th, 2006

    tjtx41

    I think what the person who asked the original question meant was; is there any way (other than visual observation) to know whether a star still exists if it lies many light years away from earth? The simple answer to that question is no. Electromagnetic radiation travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second in a vacuum. Looking with your eyes or listening with a radio telescope are the only two ways we have to detect stars. In both cases the travel time of the information is the same. According to Einstein, nothing can travel faster than light. If he is right, there never will be any faster way to get information.

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  • by Exachix on November 14th, 2005

    Exachix

    No, until the light from the star reached us to tell us that it went nova or died (or changed etc)

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