If we find a planet similar to Earth, it will be millions of light years away.
So we see the planet as it looked a long time ago because the current image has not reached us yet.
From Earth or near space even from our solar system or the Milky Way we will never find a planet with more developed life than we know here because everything we see is older than we can imagine and is therefore closer to the origin of the universe .
My question now is whether we are indeed looking back in time or if you bring something closer by enlarging it enormously, what you see is also closer to our time?
Thinking about that, we would have to lose the time factor to get anywhere near another planet that is habitable or inhabited.
I really hope to find an answer here because nowhere on the internet can I find exactly what it is.
Answer
Again, if we can find a planet like Earth, it shouldn’t be too far away, because then we can’t see it. It is in our galaxy, and even in our environment within that galaxy, that we must search. It will therefore typically not be much further than a few hundred light years. And that is negligible in time compared to the 12 billion years or so that our galaxy has already existed.
![Can’t we find a planet similar to Earth because we’re actually looking back in time? Can’t we find a planet similar to Earth because we’re actually looking back in time?](https://www.ikhebeenvraag.be/mediastorage/FSImage/A0/3993/christoffel_waelkens_kuleuven.jpg)
Answered by
prof. Christopher Waelkens
Astronomy
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