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Are We Seeing Stars as They Were in the Past?

-- | December 7, 2014

Question: If we can see the light coming from stars billion years away, and if some of these stars don’t even exist anymore, does this mean we are literally starting at the past?  — James

Answer: Yes.  Since all of the information from objects in the universe travels at the speed of light, and most objects are many light years from us, we are indeed seeing objects as they appeared in the past.

Jeff Mangum