Is this possible?

Now, we definitely could not do this now, or probably ever, but:

If you sent a space telescope thousands of light years into space, and it had a scaffold stretching down to Earth attached to it (completely ridiculous, but in THEORY), if you looked at Earth would you see the scaffold?

Light travels a light year every year, so you should see a picture of a bunch of Neanderthals doing their thing. Would you see the scaffold, since it is connected to your telescope and stretching in front of you?

Except that you have to consider the time it takes to build the scaffold. You would have to build the scaffolding faster than the speed of light. If you are 10,000 light years away, you would see what happened 10,000 years ago, but it will take your more than 10,000 years to get the scaffolding out there.

So no.

No, the scaffold is attached to the telescope, and it extends with the ship as it leaves Earth.

Also note none of this is possible, just in theory, what would happen?

Nocbl2 wrote:No, the scaffold is attached to the telescope, and it extends with the ship as it leaves Earth.

Also note none of this is possible, just in theory, what would happen?

Regardless of where the scaffold is from, it would have to be moving away or towards the earth at the speed of light. If you can get it 10,000 light years away in less than 10,000 years, you have FTL and the laws of physics generally start breaking and stuff.

If everything just appeared there, then you shouldn't be able to see the part closest to Earth yet, but you would see the scaffolding several light seconds/minutes down the line.

Fuck it, ignore...

it would appear as if the scaffolding was materializing from the telescope towards the earth, much like playing GTA Vice City and watching the draw distance.

to answer your question, no its not possible.