Written by: Shakir Ullah
No, I’m not talking about ghosts like humans. I’m talking about the ghosts of stars. But what are they?
🌟 Can We See the Past?
Would you believe that we can actually see the past? No? Let me explain.
About a thousand years ago in Basra, Iraq, a scientist named Ibn al-Haytham was trying to understand how we see things. Back then, people believed that light comes out of our eyes, hits objects, and then comes back—so we can see them. But Ibn al-Haytham didn’t agree. He thought: stars are so far away, how can light from our eyes reach them and come back so fast?
This was the golden age of science in the Islamic world. People were free to share ideas. Muslims worked hard on knowledge, and astronomy was so popular in Arabic that even today we use Arabic names for stars. Arabic was the language of science. Ibn al-Haytham taught us that light travels in a straight line. Today we know: we can only see things if they either produce light (like the Sun or stars) or reflect it (like the Moon or other objects).
🌌 How Do Stars Show Us the Past?
There are some rules in our universe. One is: nothing can travel faster than light. In fact, no physical object can even reach the speed of light.
How fast is light? Let’s look at the Moon. It’s about 384,000 kilometers away from Earth. Light from the Moon takes only 1.28 seconds to reach us. That’s super fast!
So when we look at the Moon, we’re seeing it as it was 1.28 seconds ago. Why? Because sunlight hits the Moon, reflects off it, and takes that long to reach us.
Now think about the Sun. It’s 150 million kilometers away. Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes and 50 seconds to reach Earth. So we’re seeing the Sun as it was almost 9 minutes ago.
🌠 Sirius Star – 8.6 Light Years Away
Stars are even farther. The farther they are, the older their light is when it reaches us. For example, the star Sirius is 8.6 light years away. That means we’re seeing Sirius as it was 8.6 years ago.
There’s a galaxy called GNz-11. It’s 13.4 billion light years away. So we’re seeing it as it was 13.4 billion years ago—just 400 million years after the universe began. Maybe that galaxy doesn’t even exist anymore. But its light is still reaching us.
That’s why I call them “ghosts of stars.” Whether the star still exists or not, its light is here. We can’t see beyond that.
🌌 Next Time You Look at the Sky…
Remember, you’re not just seeing stars. You’re seeing their ghosts—light from the past, still floating in the sky.
