Now, my dad brougth this up, and i think he’s right. Stars are millions of light years away, right? And sometimes by the time u see it, it could have already blown up. That’s because of the speed of light and everything. Anyway, if a ufo flew around in space through the stars and galixies and so on, wouldn’t we only see it by the time it passed by? Hope I get some answers on this, I’m curious of peoples opinions. 
:eek:
Um… We would need a hell of a telescope to see something the size of a spaceship at any kind of distance. I mean, we can barely see Pluto, which is in our own solar system, and that’s a planet!
Yer pal,
Satan
http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif
TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Four days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and 18 seconds.
197 cigarettes not smoked, saving $24.65.
Life saved: 16 hours, 25 minutes.
I don’t think anyone’s actually claimed to have witnessed a UFO flying by in what we’d all consider “outer space”! UFOs tend to be seen within one’s local air space…not deep space!
Just as Satan’s post puts it all into proper perspective: It’d be easier to find a needle in a haystack!
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
This is merely a comment, not a dissent. I’ve read a few science fiction stories (but of course can’t remember what they were or who wrote them) that would speculate just the opposite about the visibility of relativistic-speed spacecraft.
The Bussard ramjet, which is one of the more popular theoretical devices for reaching relativistic speeds, relies on enormous magnetic fields to suck in interstellar hydrogen, which is then fused to create a propulsive exhaust. The combination of the hydrogen atoms being accelerated to near-light speed at induction and the powerful exhaust out the back would create an incandescence of the same order of magnitude as a small sun, if I recall correctly. Almost any large object traveling near the speed of light would be pretty bright somewhere in the spectrum because it would either have to suck up interstellar particles, push them out of the way with magnetic fields, or ablate spectacularly.
Of course, spotting a small sun zipping along at relativistic speeds is still a lot less simple than finding a needle in a haystack, so the above observations still hold. Unless of course the ramjet happens to be passing very close by. If that were to happen, it is likely that it would be identified as a very long line against a background of very short ones on whatever is the modern day equivalent of a photoplate. Or, it might show up at longer range as a curious x-ray signature.
Or all those sci-fi authors could be wrong, along with me.
Oh, I was supposed to be answering a question here, wasn’t I?
Yes, it would be long gone by the time you actually saw it, unless of course it were coming to visit us in particular.
Didn’t you see the Hale Bop comet? That was a spaceship, according to some.
The Turtle Moves
Twizz:
First off, a UFO is not necessarily a spaceship. A UFO is any “unidentified flying object”, and is referring to objects flying in our atmosphere. But that is just being picky, because it is understood that you are referring to a spaceship capable of faster than light travel.
However, as Satan said it would be almost impossible to spot a spaceship at any distance. We see stars because they are light producing bodies… a spaceship would not produce near as much light as a star would, and most light we would see from it would be reflected light anyway… except for any light sources it has on board. So, in order for us to actually see a starship it would have to be very close to Earth, if not orbiting it. And faster than light travel while orbiting a planet just seems downright silly to me.
Here’s an interesting thought though. What if a ship was traveling faster than light straight at us… and slowed to a stop when it got to our atmosphere. The ship would actually be here before we saw it. But, of course once it got here new light would be reflecting off it and we would see it the instant it stopped… would a sort of “light boom” (like a sonic boom) occur as the light from its travel races to catch up with it?
Let me know what you think.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
If it was travelling exactly or almost at light speed, then yes, I’d expect there will be a pile-up of light from the ship. But since photons don’t interact with other photons, it won’t be like a shock wave. Just a flash of light.
Actually, if the ship was travelling towards us faster than light though, it would look like it was travelling away from us! If the ship was at Earth now and a light-year away half a year ago, the light from the ship from one light-year away won’t be here till half a year from now. (Read that again, it should make sense.)
Of course, saying “if one could travel faster than light” is like saying “if 1+1=1” in math - it makes pretty much anything possible.
Thanx Satan, i think yours made the most sense. I get what you’re saying.