# Can others see us many years ago relative to them? [duplicate]

In theory can entities in future spacetime look "back in time" to us, as we look back in time to other entities light years away, or is time simply a function of the distance and distance determines the relative time of all entities in relation to one another?

## marked as duplicate by John Rennie spacetime StackExchange.ready(function() { if (StackExchange.options.isMobile) return; $('.dupe-hammer-message-hover:not(.hover-bound)').each(function() { var$hover = $(this).addClass('hover-bound'),$msg = $hover.siblings('.dupe-hammer-message');$hover.hover( function() { $hover.showInfoMessage('', { messageElement:$msg.clone().show(), transient: false, position: { my: 'bottom left', at: 'top center', offsetTop: -7 }, dismissable: false, relativeToBody: true }); }, function() { StackExchange.helpers.removeMessages(); } ); }); }); Apr 6 at 10:58

An entity that is 100 light-years away from us sees us as we were 100 years prior, and we see them as they were 100 years earlier as well. It is simply a matter of the finite speed of light, and the distance between the observer and the observed.

• Should it be noted that this isn't a consequence of special relativity? – Aaron Stevens Apr 5 at 21:32
• Perhaps. But the OP didn't make the explicit connection so neither did I. – niels nielsen Apr 6 at 5:10