They are seeing ghosts.
Omae wa mo shindeiru.

‘Loli?!?!?’

Maybe theoretically they could see loved ones from 50 years ago but in practice they could see nothing meaningful as so few photons could be detected at such a distance.

It makes me sad that I can’t teleport there right now. See my three Aunts, my dog who died without me there.

I think it’s cool. Fascinating.
I tell my students that if we could go to another planet 100 million light years away, and train a big telescope on earth, we could see the dinosaurs.

Uhhh….

What about setting up a humongous mirror 25 light-years away?

Then when people turn 50,they could celebrate by watching their own birth.

What does “Uhhh…” mean @Darth_Algar?

I hope you’re at least not teaching that in a science class.

Does it comfort you in any way,

Mu Arae d, also known as HD 160691 d, later named Rocinante, is an extrasolar planet orbiting the star Mu Arae of the constellation Ara.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Arae_d

Rocinante’s glistening droplets alighting on my lens would be quite the quixotic comfort.

Thank you, peeps!
@Pinguidchance Thanks for teaching me a new word (quixotic)!
Nicely put, that last sentence.

@Darth_Algar If we could (but we can’t) build a telescope on a planet 100 million light years away that could allow us to see earth and what is on it, we’d see how it was 100 million years ago. It’s the same premise as this question.
I don’t teach it in a science class. It’s just a thought exercise I throw out if we start discussing the properties of light for whatever reason.

Well you’d see the Sun perhaps, but you’re not going to make out any planets at that distance. Not with a visual telescope anyway.

(And yes, some may say that’s being pedantic, but that word itself comes from pedant, an early term for “teacher”. :p)

But yes, I’m glad that’s not in a science class. Growing up I had several teachers teaching our science who had little to no understanding of science.

@Darth_Algar You are completely, utterly missing the point. What we see with our eyes is reflected light. If the sun were to nova now, we wouldn’t know it for 8 minutes. And don’t lecture me that our sun is too small of a star to go nova. I know this.

We see reflected light? Oh shit, I didn’t know that.

@Pinguidchance Thanks for teaching me a new word (quixotic)!
Nicely put, that last sentence.

@rebbel that planet, Rocinante, was named after Don Quixote’s horse hence his glistening droplets on my lens.

@Pinguidchance Ah, I didn’t know that, and I already liked it.
I need to read the book, one day, to find out about the “glistening droplets” reference.
Thanks again!