What-If 0047: "Alien Astronomers"

[pogrmman]

That seems possible...
The problem with searching for fires is any civilization with a level of technology comparable to ours probably doesn't have incredible huge fires that often.

So, you'd probably only find less technologically advanced civilizations that can't communicate with us...

[gmalivuk]

For a few hours, the night side of the Earth could be much brighter than the day side.

How big would a fire have to be for this to actually be the case?

[morriswalters]

Let's assume there's life on the the nearest habitable exoplanet and that they have technology comparable to ours. If they looked at our star right now, what would they see?

Our star. Maybe something far enough out in orbit. Depending on how close they are, which is a function of how common life is. That is answer one. The same thing we see when we look at them. That is answer two.