How to look back in time (Look at the stars 🌠)

Looking back in time may be easier than you've ever imagined. In fact, you have been doing it since you were born.

Every time you look at a star, you're seeing light that has traveled light years to reach earth. For example; The bright star Altair is 17 light years away which means the light hitting your eyes tonight had been traveling for 17 light years. In other words, when you look at Altair, lets say tonight, you see it as it was 17 years ago! and if you're 17 years old, looking at Altair practically means you're looking at it as it was the time of your birth.  

You can go here to the list of the brightest stars and rank them by distance, then find the number closest to your age. That is your birth-star ~ the one whose visible light is the same age as you are. 

The most interesting part about this is that if an alien that is 65 million light years away sees earth through a powerful telescope, they will be seeing dinosaurs... (well, they probably wouldn't be able to see actual dinosaurs due to how small they would be in the grand scheme of things and 65 million light years is a long long distance.) 

So what do you think? I was blown away by this when I first read it. So I thought I might share! 

This question originally appeared on Quora, and was answered by Corey S. Powell, Book author, former editor of Discover & American Scientist. Link for reference.