How long does it take for me to see a star and its light?

Question

i am very confused wi9th this whole "it takes four and a half years to see the light" does this mean that the light is see is 4 and a half years old? how is that possible does this also mean that it takes longer to see something a block away rather than an inch away or does this whole time thing only apply to light?

Answer 1

The nearest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.22 light years away. That means that it takes light 4.22 years to reach us from there. Just for comparison, the nearest galaxy, Andromeda, is 2 million light years away.  

Answer 2

Yes.  Light travels at a certain speed.  It's very fast, but it still takes some time to go a large distance.  For instance, if a star is 24 trillion miles away, it takes light 4 years to travel from the star to you.  Hence the light that reaches your eyes from the star today left that star 4 years ago.

It is also true for something a block away instead of an inch away, but light moves so quickly that you can't see the difference for such a short distance.  Perhaps it will make sense if I tell you that for short distances, you can compute how long it takes the light to travel between two points from the fact that the light travels one foot in a nanosecond (a billionth of a second); so to travel 1,000 feet, about two blocks, takes light only a millionth of a second.

Answer 3

Light doesn't travel instantly from one place to another.  light shines at 186,000 miles per second.  So when you are  looking at a star that is 4.5 light years away, that means that the light just now reaching earth has been traveling for 4.5 years.  When you look at the moon you see it as it was 1.5 seconds ago because that is how long light takes to travel to earth from the moon.  It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for light from the sun to reach earth so you see the sun as it was 8 minutes and 20 seconds ago.  And yes this applies to things that are a block away and right in front of your face.  But things that are that close we don't notice because light travels so fast.  hope this helps answer your question.

Answer 4

Yes. Light takes time to get from the star to you.

It takes 8 Minutes to get here from the sun.

At 186,200 MPH the time it takes to get down the block is pretty

small, but yes, it does take some time.

We see light a lot older than 4 1/2 Yr.s, that's pretty close as

stars go.

Answer 5

all the previous answers are correct.  i just wanted to add, that EVERYTHING you see IS light.  when you see a red shirt, even though it isn't "shining" you are still seeing the light that it reflects...  which still travels at the speed of light.  your question sort of left the potential impression that things that don't shine but are still visible, are visible by something that is not light.

Answer 6

It takes AT LEAST 4 and a half years to see the light from anything outside our solar system,since the nearest star is that distance away. Light from the Sun takes about 9 mins to reach us and even moonlight is more than a second "old".

Some stars which are mind-blowing distances away have maybe exploded and disappeared years ago, but we still see their light. It follows therefore, that if we see a distant supernova, it actually happened before we were born.

Answer 7

Yes the light from a star located 4.5 light-years away is coming to Earth 4.5 years after it left the star. When you see it you are seeing photons 4.5 years old.

If you see the Andromeda galaxy you will see it as it was 2.3 million years ago, since this galaxy is 2.3 million ligh years away.