Originally Posted by kyeto13

Quite easily actually.

Light travels at a finite speed, and by the 25th century, we have surpassed that speed greatly via warp speed. So, when an event happens, like the Pillar of Creation being created/destroyed, there was a unique light pulse or picture that was sent out in an ever expanding sphere.

As this sphere crosses you, you can look out and see the event happen in real time. Normally for us mortals we can only see the event once. But since a Federation starship easily outstrips the speed of light, it can go out, past the edge of the current light sphere, and re-intercept the light from that event.

Granted, there is a diminishing return on it, as the farther out you go the less and less resolution you can get out of the event. So, by 2409, you cant back up and zoom into Wolf 359 and see the battle all over again. It's been about 52 years since the event, and the explosions of starships would be too faint to see from that far away.

However, another trekkie event, the explosion of the Amargosa star in ST:Generations, would be bright enough to pull this on. This event took place 38 years from game time. Thus, if you go 38 ly from Armagosa (and you can get this accurate down to the kilometer if you felt like it, since we know via historical records exactly when Armagosa happened down to the second.)in any direction. You can park your ship there and turn your long range sensors down wind towards where Armagosa use to be. By that time, the light from the explosion will be crossing your path.

So, the same idea could be done with the Pillar of Creation, without violating any laws of causality. Einstein approved.

Originally Posted by tlamstrike

"Set it on screensaver two."

Any photo NASA takes is free to reproduce. I guess who ever built the fleetbase needed some royalty free images to populate the computers.

Originally Posted by mattjohnsonva

Is that true if it is used in a commercial venture like STO?

Originally Posted by mattjohnsonva

Very well thought out premise, the astronomers of the future are going to make good use of warp drive.