Is it possible to look into our Pre-historic earth by traveling to the future?

Well I was just thinking:

We have photographs from other galaxies that are million or billions of light years away. So the pictures that we received is of the past, meaning the light from those planets and galaxies has just reached our earth and telescopes. So during that time gap, those particular planets and galaxies might have collapsed, been destroyed or simply moved.

So if someone on those planets looked at earth through the telescope, They would also see the earth like it was billions or millions of years ago. A red boiling planet, or during the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Ok now If a human wanted to take a picture of the earth as it was 2000 years ago. He would need to travel 2000 times the speed of light for one year to be able to match the light from 2000 years ago.

Or in another words:
A photon of light started its journey from earth to space 2000 years ago, now if we wanted to catch that photon, we would need to travel 2000xspeed to be where that photon presently is.

Now that kind of traveling process would make that craft or ship act as a time machine, but only for light particles. I mean we wont be physically able to go back 2000 years ago on earth.

So to physically go back in time, we would need to master Bending time and space.

Some say that Bending time and space is more of a possibility than traveling at or exceeding the speed of light. I don't have the proper link to back this up.

I was watching 'The Universe' so that's how I landed on this subject. Feel free to add your thought/comments.

Huh?!

Interesting subject for sure.

Too bad about relativity otherwise we'd be able (theoretically) to try it out. Even photons obey the c constant.

Sure would like to find out what dinosaurs actually looked like.

Our universe one actually one big time machine when you think about it. Who knows, there may be a giant interstellar death wave coming our way that originated centuries ago in another galaxy even.

Great no sleep tonight..

I don't think it's possible.

lol the same "traveling into space faster than light to look back into our past" thought has crossed my mind too

OP, if you are really interested in this stuff, you should start here:
A Brief History of Time, By Stephen Hawking

It's not dry at all. He's actually pretty funny!

I was thinking about this exact same thing on my way to work this morning. That's a hell of a coincidence.

I figure people 1000 years ago would say a giant hunk of heavy steel flying people around the world is impossible, and, likewise, we can't wrap our minds around the idea of going that fast. But you never know.

It'd also take an EXTREMELY fine optical instrument to pick up the light properly. Sure, we can see an extinct star's light, but there's no way we could really see any details atm.

yes. if you can travel faster than the speed of light from earth to point A, you will be traveling to the past... relative to earth ofcourse

hmmmm.... but .... *too much thinking*

I was thinking the same thing too while I was taking a crap, after careful though and a clean wipe, I realized that photoshop is a better choice.

It is physically impossible for mass to travel at the speed of light, and to travel at 99% of the speed of light would take more energy then anything we could muster unless we somehow mastered harnessing the galaxy as energy.

The only way we could get around this is through the wormhole theory, or somehow bringing point A and point B closer together while moving the universe around them. Of course it is all theory.

But yes, if you could suddenly appear 2000 lightyears away, you would see the earth as it was 2000 years ago, albeit you would not really "see" it, especially in any detail greater then a speck of dust using the most powerful telescope that hasn't yet been created - remember the earth is a miniscule speck against the brightness of the Sun.

Originally Posted by beerbaron105

It is physically impossible for mass to travel at the speed of light, and to travel at 99% of the speed of light would take more energy then anything we could muster unless we somehow mastered harnessing the galaxy as energy.

The only way we could get around this is through the wormhole theory, or somehow bringing point A and point B closer together while moving the universe around them. Of course it is all theory.

But yes, if you could suddenly appear 2000 lightyears away, you would see the earth as it was 2000 years ago, albeit you would not really "see" it, especially in any detail greater then a speck of dust using the most powerful telescope that hasn't yet been created - remember the earth is a miniscule speck against the brightness of the Sun.

From current knowledge you mean.

Maybe, travel a couple light years away (let's say 5light years), put a big mirror on some planet, come back, and see what earth looked like 10 years ago.

Dude, that was so deep.

I think about that stuff like all the time, and I thought I was the only one. Wow.

Like, the only reason we die - is because we accept it as an inevitability.

Originally Posted by xpoint9

Well I was just thinking:

We have photographs from other galaxies that are million or billions of light years away. So the pictures that we received is of the past, meaning the light from those planets and galaxies has just reached our earth and telescopes. So during that time gap, those particular planets and galaxies might have collapsed, been destroyed or simply moved.

So if someone on those planets looked at earth through the telescope, They would also see the earth like it was billions or millions of years ago. A red boiling planet, or during the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Ok now If a human wanted to take a picture of the earth as it was 2000 years ago. He would need to travel 2000 times the speed of light for one year to be able to match the light from 2000 years ago.

Or in another words:
A photon of light started its journey from earth to space 2000 years ago, now if we wanted to catch that photon, we would need to travel 2000xspeed to be where that photon presently is.

Now that kind of traveling process would make that craft or ship act as a time machine, but only for light particles. I mean we wont be physically able to go back 2000 years ago on earth.

So to physically go back in time, we would need to master Bending time and space.

Some say that Bending time and space is more of a possibility than traveling at or exceeding the speed of light. I don't have the proper link to back this up.

I was watching 'The Universe' so that's how I landed on this subject. Feel free to add your thought/comments.

You forgot about the 2nd law of thermodynamics. And also based on the Big Bang model, going back in time would require reversing that process. The first is the "arrow of time" introduced by thermodynamics, the second is cosmological due to the way our universe was structured.

Whoa - this is heavy duty stuff to be discussing in a forum Interesting... but to observe these photons, you'd have to get some physical device/person/whatever there... and you wouldn't be able to move it there faster than the photon itself.

Originally Posted by cooolway

Maybe, travel a couple light years away (let's say 5light years), put a big mirror on some planet, come back, and see what earth looked like 10 years ago.

??? By the time you get 5 light years away, those photons would have been waaaay long gone.

bjl