Galaxies

[Noor]

do you ever wonder where we'll all be then? probably not even dust anymore. completely reabsorbed.

I agree!

 

[doctor_insanus]

Some pretty exciting stuff happening in our galaxy right now.

 

[John Doe]

If we are looking at light that left its source 13.2 billion years ago, and we came from that single point, how did we get way out here before the light did?


I asked Stephen Hawking that question a few years ago, but he couldn't be bothered to email me back. Some grad student tried to answer on his behalf; but, I never talk to the monkey. Always talk to the organ grinder.

After being disappointed by Prof. Hawking, I asked the same question of Lisa Randall. She actually emailed me back and explained M-Theory to me - which also didn't answer the question. But we did correspond for a few weeks, then she mentioned the movie Spaceballs. I had to end our conversation at that point because I just can't respect anyone that liked that movie.

I answered the question though. As I said, at a certain distance the rate of expansion exceeds the speed of light.

Are you that same teacher who tortured me all through high school?

No. Would you like me to be?

Also - false color imagining is pretty, but it's a misrepresentation.


All those pretty pictures of nebula and shit... false colors. If you were standing out in the middle of the universe, none of those colors would be visible.

Killjoy.

i was just making talk.

Oh.

 

[Byron In Exile]

do you ever wonder where we'll all be then? probably not even dust anymore. completely reabsorbed.

Life on earth is mostly over. In 600 million years, most of the plant life will be dead, and in 800 million years, animals will be extinct. A billion years from now, the oceans will have evaporated away, and the earth will be a hot lifeless rock.

The reason is: the sun. It's burning its hydrogen core, and as it does so, the process accelerates and the sun becomes brighter. The result of the increase in solar radiation will be the elimination of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which will kill the plants, which produce oxygen. Without oxygen, the animals will die — mammals first, reptiles later.

The moon will orbit closer to the earth until it gets close enough that the earth's tidal forces break it into bits, and earth will have a ring system like Saturn... although there will be nobody around to see it.

In about 4.5 billion years, the sun will exhaust its hydrogen core and begin burning its hydrogen shell, entering its Red Giant phase of stellar life. From there, its luminosity will increase and it will expand in size until its surface is right about... here. Where earth is right now. However, luckily for our intrepid planet, the increased force of the solar wind will have forced earth's orbit out to about 140 million miles, so it will continue its long journey around the sun. But not for long, because drag caused by the solar atmosphere will cause earth's orbit to decay just as it did the moon's, and it will fall into the sun. This will happen about 7.5 billion years from now.

HOWEVER... (fasten your seat belts...) The Andromeda galaxy will be here in just 4.5 billion years! Who knows what might happen, then? Once these two huge galaxies' gravity wells begin to interact... all bets are off. The earth might be ejected from the solar system, the solar system might be ejected from the galaxy!

Andromeda has already clearly eaten a few smaller galaxies as snacks or light lunches. Wait till it gets a load of US!

It's a larger galaxy in scope, but not in mass. It does have more satellites, but hopefully they'll stay out of it.

 

[Byron In Exile]

I alternate between being enthused and being depressed.

The most awesome thing that could happen in our Local Group, but humanity will have vanished 4 billion years before.

I look at ants now, and I think, "brothers, I feel your pain."

 

[Byron In Exile]

But they have no idea what I'm talking about.

Because they're ants. They just do stuff.

They don't think "why are we here?"

What they think is, "oh, hey, here's a giant leaf that weighs 100 times what we do, so let's carry it back 500 miles..."

 

[girlsmiley]

The speed of light is the only true constant as far as we know.

3.08 by 10 to the power of 8.

Every other principle has a variation.

Atomic half lives-as a particle breaks in half - how we work out carbon dating etc.

If we could somehow manipulate the barriers of the speed of light...

 

[John Doe]

The speed of light is the only true constant as far as we know.

3.08 by 10 to the power of 8.

Every other principle has a variation.

Atomic half lives-as a particle breaks in half - how we work out carbon dating etc.

If we could somehow manipulate the barriers of the speed of light...

Actually, the speed of light varies depending on its medium. However, the speed of light in a vacuum is widely considered a constant. We've already manipulated its speed in experiments by using a medium other than vacuum. Though as far as I know we've only slowed it. I get the impression you're referring to finding some way of exceeding its speed in a vacuum.

Half-life doesn't refer to something breaking in half. It is the amount of time required for a quantity to fall to half its value as measured at the beginning of the time period. "Atomic" half-life actually regards isotopes. Not atoms. It is the amount of time it takes a specific quantity of a given isotope to decay to the point that you have half the original isotope left.

 

[girlsmiley]

Half-life doesn't refer to something breaking in half.

This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[girlsmiley]

Actually, the speed of light varies depending on its medium. However, the speed of light in a vacuum is widely considered a constant. We've already manipulated its speed in experiments by using a medium other than vacuum. Though as far as I know we've only slowed it. I get the impression you're referring to finding some way of exceeding its speed in a vacuum.

Half-life doesn't refer to something breaking in half. It is the amount of time required for a quantity to fall to half its value as measured at the beginning of the time period. "Atomic" half-life actually regards isotopes. Not atoms. It is the amount of time it takes a specific quantity of a given isotope to decay to the point that you have half the original isotope left.

All true. You're obviously less drunk than I was when I posted this last night.

 

[neci]

math is the key to astronomy.

i am fucking lost.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Enjoy the pretty flowers!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140313.html

click archive, and see what they chose for this (past) week

 

[John Doe]

All true. You're obviously less drunk than I was when I posted this last night.

My mistake. I forgot you're Aussie and that it's the weekend.

 

[Byron In Exile]

All true. You're obviously less drunk than I was when I posted this last night.

John was spot-on.

 

[Byron In Exile]

math is the key to astronomy.

i am fucking lost.

Open your mind to it.

The math is conceptual.

It's just a way of describing reality.

When you understand the reality, the math is superfluous.

 

[neci]

Enjoy the pretty flowers!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140313.html

click archive, and see what they chose for this (past) week

beautiful.

My mistake. I forgot you're Aussie and that it's the weekend.

get with the program!

Open your mind to it.

The math is conceptual.

It's just a way of describing reality.

When you understand the reality, the math is superfluous.

who said i wanted anything to do with reality?

 

[Byron In Exile]

who said i wanted anything to do with reality?

I didn't.

 

[neci]

I didn't.

just checking.

anyways. that's my maths issue. at some point in geometry, i decided to reject the point, and it's all been lost in space since then.

 

[phrodeau]

Sshhh. Cosmos is on.

 

[Byron In Exile]

just checking.

anyways. that's my maths issue. at some point in geometry, i decided to reject the point, and it's all been lost in space since then.

Women get math.

What they don't get are the symbols.

 

[Byron In Exile]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ditEyvRbM

 

[girlsmiley]

John was spot-on.

He is/was, yep.

My mistake. I forgot you're Aussie and that it's the weekend.

Yeah, I had a few champagnes with the gang whilst out and about.

It was a wonderful night.

 

[John Doe]

Yeah, I had a few champagnes with the gang whilst out and about.

It was a wonderful night.

You're in a gang? Do you have any tattoos?

 

[girlsmiley]

You're in a gang? Do you have any tattoos?

I am. Patched member.

No. Basically a group of us get together each year for certain events. For fun times. We have a blast. Our small "cultural society" (lol) has a name but I won't post it here... . It's just fun.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The other day I was listening talk radio and someone mentioned children being encouraged to name their own constellations. I remember when it was stars we were told to dream of naming, the constellations set with legends told. As we stumble upon the outskirts of space, how many more spinning orbs will be found? Would it be possible in another galaxy, to have planets box around solid fires we call suns? I like the idea of naming galaxies, as if they were my own.

In a practical sense contemplating space is as useless as contemplating paradise and hell.