Is there any point at which the distance becomes too large to the extreme where you basically get “deleted” from existence?
One of the biggest problems they would have is just pointing their communications equipment in the right direction. The Voyager probes have a complicated guidance system (AACS) which takes input from a three-axis gyroscope and several other reference instruments to keep the 3.7m antenna pointed at Earth. If the antenna goes out of alignment then the radio beam will not hit Earth and will not be received.
The only reason this works is that the Deep Space Network on Earth is actively listening for the signal from the probes, and the people operating it know exactly what direction to point the receiving antennae to get the signal from the probes. If you don’t have very precise targeting you probably won’t get the signal.
Next year Voyager 1 will reach a distance of one light-day from Earth and it’s already a very difficult problem that is only solvable because it was planned for extensively prior to launch, so never mind trying to accomplish this at a distance of hundreds of light-years with no planning.
Is there any point at which the distance becomes too large to the extreme where you basically get “deleted” from existence?
This is basically what the definition of “observable universe” is. It is the part of the universe that is close enough in space and time for light to reach us. So if you say they get transported to the observable part of the universe, then yes, their signals will eventually reach earth. But the closer they are to the edge of the observable universe, the longer the signals will take to reach, and the more red shifted they will be due to the expansion of the intermediate space as the signals travel to Earth.
Note that there are some semantics at play; “observable universe” might refer to the parts of the universe that have emitted light in the past that is reaching earth now. But the the light emitted by those places now might never reach Earth because they are now too far away. So if these astronauts got sent to one of those places then no, their signals would not reach earth.
Afaik theres the observable universe (their signals will reach us) and the smaller interactactable universe (our signals will reach them).
To offer a value, let’s say they get ejected about 46.5 billion light years away (the radius of the observable universe today).
I think this would fall in to the latter scenario. 46 billion light years is the edge of the observable universe in the sense that light emitted by those regions has reached us by now. But these regions are beyond the cosmic event horizon, which is the distance at which light emitted now will ever reach us. That distance is about 17 billion light years.
I believe that it would also be true that at a much much closer distance, the signal strength would fall below the CMB and become practically invisible, due to the inverse square law.
Special relativity describes that as the light cone - if you flash a light somewhere in the universe, how much of the universe will see it.
Earth will only be around for another five billion years or do, so no.
It kind of depends how far away they go. There is this concept called a “light cone” and it’s basically the information that could possibly reach you as you go through space/time. If they land inside your light cone, they could possibly reach earth with a signal. It may take a long time and they are long gone, but it could be possible.
If they are outside the Earth’s light cone, there is no possible way for their signal to reach earth.
Because signals and other causal influences cannot travel faster than light (see special relativity), the light cone plays an essential role in defining the concept of causality: for a given event E, the set of events that lie on or inside the past light cone of E would also be the set of all events that could send a signal that would have time to reach E and influence it in some way.
Nope, the signals will attenuate into noise pretty quickly. LOL, unless they’re using a quasar to communicate.
I feel like people usually miss this bit: Electromagnetic signals, light, etc., decrease by the inverse square law. Here’s a pic that illustrates better than I can write it out. Double the distance from the source, signal drops to 1/4 strength, move out the same distance again, all ya got is 1/9 strength. tldr: The signal strength drops fast.
After a very short distance, cosmically speaking, the signal becomes indistinguishable from universal background radiation and no magic science fiction can filter out a clean copy.
This ^. You can think about a radio source just like a visible light source. It fades out over distance because the energy emission is spreading out. If there are other light sources that are of similar or greater strength between you and that light, it will be basically impossible to distinguish the one light that you care about from everything else.
Yes. As the universe expands, the “structure” of spacetime is actually expanding as well. That means that extremely distant objects are moving away from us at greater than the speed of light. Here is another article with video that explains this.
Yes, however, the signals can travel back through if it’s a 2-way wormhole. The universe expands like the surface of a balloon. Theoretically, there are locations far enough away from each other that the distance between expands faster than the speed of light.
We don’t absolutely know what the future holds for our own planet much less the universe, so it’s impossible to answer this with any conviction, but based on my current understanding or the general scientific consensus, and the fact that the universe is expanding and that expansion is accelerating, no, by placing them at the edge of the observable universe and the effects of relativity, their hypothetical signals will never reach Earth and almost certainly not the Earth that we know of that’s orbiting Sol and full of humans patiently observing the universe for signs of their lost ancestors.
But we don’t know with any certainty that the universe’s expansion or acceleration is going to continue indefinitely, we don’t even fully understand why it is happening. So maybe their signals will eventually reach us. Maybe the universe will start contracting eventually and in a few trillion years they’ll swing right by Earth on their own, waving as they go by as we mutually go careening down towards the big crunch. Besides, if the universe is infinite, and is going to last an infinite amount of time, well “infinity” is a very long time and you can’t rule out the fact that another wormhole could open and bring them (or their signals) home at some point now that you’ve proven such a wormhole can exist. So when you put all the things we do know and the things we don’t know together, I’d give them about 50/50 chances, with a margin of error of plus or minus 50%.
I’d give them about 50/50 chances, with a margin of error of plus or minus 50%.
I’d say there’s a 50/50 chance you’re right!
You never get deleted from existence, matter state will get transformed into energy (wormhole collapse energy at this point) but the information will be preserved. If you use this information to re-establish wormhole the direct signal will be restored.
It depends on what “existence” means.
