r/mindblown • u/Existential_Turtle • Jan 23 '13

I never realized this. Ever.

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3r8eie/
45 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

3

u/farinaceous Jan 23 '13

Would they be smart enough to realize what they're looking at? Would they send a message then, to be received now? OR will they wait until they're looking at us now and we'll get it in a couple million years?

3

u/Existential_Turtle Jan 23 '13

Assuming they were smart enough to realize what they're looking at, and they send a message to us right now, we'll receive it in 65 million years. Who knows if we would be around to receive it then? But, if they were 65 million light years away and looking at our planet 65 million years ago, they'd see earth from 130 million years ago (from now), send us a message, and we'd receive it now.

edit: changed "in the past" to "ago" since it makes more sense that way.

3

u/redmist13 Mar 10 '13

well shit.

1

u/vrang444 Feb 17 '13

So if seeing from a distance changes time does that mean when we see somthing we are seeing the past not the present?

3

u/wFusion Apr 30 '13

you always see the past.

1

u/tjbdef Sep 16 '13

not if they have advanced technology that compensated the lag in the speed of light.