• Question: If you shone a very bright light in space, would the light travel to earth?

    Asked by fishofdoom to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Yep. This happens all the time, from really far away – stars!

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Yes! The stars are doing it all the time!

      The only things that would stop the light getting to you from space would be if something else got in the way, or if the thing was too far away for the light to have reached us yet!

    • Photo: Karen Masters

      Karen Masters answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      That would depend in which direction you shone the light. If you shone it towards Earth then some would hit Earth.

      Some people in the US collected enough light bulbs and lasers to make a visible signal to the International Space Station recently. There’s a picture the astronauts took of it here: http://www.americaspace.org/?p=15148

    • Photo: Nazim Bharmal

      Nazim Bharmal answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Yes, but you have to be sure the light is pointing at Earth or that the light goes in all directions. So using a laser would be hard because the light coming from it goes in one direction and that would have to be pointed really precisely at us. (And what if no-one was looking!?!)

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