Yes, we are indeed looking back in time.
The only way we can figure out what’s been happening more recently to the object (e.g. star) is by comparison with other objects like it. Those comparisons tell us what sort of life-cycle stars go through. Whatever might happen, however, ’disappearance’ isn’t really an option, since stars contain some conserved quantities (energy, baryon number...) which will persist even if the star burns out or blows up.
Mike W.
(published on 10/22/2007)
