Vesurel t1_irv67py wrote on October 11, 2022 at 8:00 AM

For us to not see it, it would have to be less bright than alpha centauri. It's not like we're searching a 3d space for starts, we're searching the '2d' sky, so it's not like we're going to find out there's a bit of sky we didn't know was there before. So instead we'd find new starts by getting better at detecting fainter and fainter lights in the sky we already know about.

So it's a question of how likely a star within the range of alpha centauri would both meet the requirement for being a star but be fainter in the sky than entire galaxies billions of times further away look to us.

Small-District8048 t1_irwcypo wrote on October 11, 2022 at 3:15 PM

I like the way you put that, "... searching the '2d' sky...". But that brings. Question to my mind. If we had another observatory, say Mars or, if needed, one of the outer planets/their moons, is it possible THAT observatory would detect different stars? I mean, the vast majority would be the same, but since the origin of where it was looking from would be different....

Or would said observatory have to be in another system to attain that effect? I realize that even Pluto is a close neighbor when it comes to interstellar distance.