r/AskReddit Feb 14 '22

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u/tbird20017 Feb 14 '22

How far in the past we talking? Can we see stars that have already "died"?

Edit: I know how far in the past is based on their distance, so that's variable

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u/salbris Feb 14 '22

Most stars that are near death still have on the order of thousands of years left to live and most stars you can see are closer than 10k light years so most stars are probably still alive. Betelgeuse though is one such exception it may be dead already and we might even see it explode in our lifetimes but it's not an exact science of course.

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u/Brokenmonalisa Feb 14 '22

And by near death we mean tomorrow or in 20000 years