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Space: The Final Frontier

T

Teknoman

Member
In Texas its Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon. It just feels strange for some reason to look up and see that arrangement.

3519y0y.jpg


Best I could do with a normal digital camera. If I could get to a better spot, I could zoom in with my camcorder, but not sure how much better a still from that would be.

Also how would a satellite look passing over you? A red blinking beacon with no other lights?

abstract alien said:
No idea this thread existed, but damn, its certainly beautiful. I love this stuff, it gets me going.
Click to expand...


Yeah its kinda like a hidden topic (not really but people usually dont find it unless they search or catch it on the first page for a split second) and it might be better that way since that lessens the chance that it'll be overrun with crap.

EDIT: Canis Majoris is insane.
 
abstract alien

abstract alien

Member
I know these may be a bit pointless to ask, but sometimes its hard to phathom such things...

Well, exactly what is at the edge of our universe? Its difficult to imagine what could possibly be at the rim of what we know as space, so much so that Im not sure anything would make sense even if it could be seen. If space, or our universe, is still growing, then are we overlapping what sits on our rim, or pushing it outward? What the hell sits outside of the contents that make up said rim?

Is there a multiverse?

:^/ Why can i live and die at the same time when sucked into a black hole(thats what was said on a tv program)?

I understand that time is much more than just the passage of events, but the fact that it can be perceived differently between two people and still exist as a uniform entity is both lovely and boggling. With that said, exactly how do you even begin to tackle something like time travel? I believe Einstein said that such a concept wouldnt even begin to be possible without a method of lightspeed travel, and I understand that going that fast will alter time for you personally(slower aging i believe), but if this is true, what the hell would be considered a good next step to take?
 
D

DarkJediKnight

Member
abstract alien said:
I know these may be a bit pointless to ask, but sometimes its hard to phathom such things...

Well, exactly what is at the edge of our universe? Its difficult to imagine what could possibly be at the rim of what we know as space, so much so that Im not sure anything would make sense even if it could be seen. If space, or our universe, is still growing, then are we overlapping what sits on our rim, or pushing it outward? What the hell sits outside of the contents that make up said rim?

Is there a multiverse?

:^/ Why can i live and die at the same time when sucked into a black hole(thats what was said on a tv program)?

I understand that time is much more than just the passage of events, but the fact that it can be perceived differently between two people and still exist as a uniform entity is both lovely and boggling. With that said, exactly how do you even begin to tackle something like time travel? I believe Einstein said that such a concept wouldnt even begin to be possible without a method of lightspeed travel, and I understand that going that fast will alter time for you personally(slower aging i believe), but if this is true, what the hell would be considered a good next step to take?
Click to expand...

No one really knows. We're sort of lucky that we're at the edge of the milky way galaxy, giving us the ability to see vast distances of space with Hubble, but as I learned in University, there is only dark matter. Dark matter always is.
 
abstract alien

abstract alien

Member
DarkJediKnight said:
No one really knows. We're sort of lucky that we're at the edge of the milky way galaxy, giving us the ability to see vast distances of space with Hubble, but as I learned in University, there is only dark matter. Dark matter always is.
Click to expand...
What exactly is dark matter? From what Ive gathered, it seems to be what everything sits in, like the broth that contains the soup. Some other odd piece Ive heard on dark matter is that its not an actual "matter", but the byproduct of reactions between matter. I havent the slightest clue as to what it is, or its purpose, but Id love to know one thing...how does dark matter react to a black hole?
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
abstract alien said:
What exactly is dark matter? From what Ive gathered, it seems to be what everything sits in, like the broth that contains the soup. Some other odd piece Ive heard on dark matter is that its not an actual "matter", but the byproduct of reactions between matter. I havent the slightest clue as to what it is, or its purpose, but Id love to know one thing...how does dark matter react to a black hole?
Click to expand...


They don't know either. Dark Matter is unaccounted for "stuff" and a giant hole in our perception of how the universe works. For the universe to be the way it is, we have a lot of inexplicable shit to explain. If Dark Matter accounts for odd gravitational and mass discrepancies and is an actual substance or measurable energy, then it makes things easier.
 
abstract alien

abstract alien

Member
OuterWorldVoice said:
They don't know either. Dark Matter is unaccounted for "stuff" and a giant hole in our perception of how the universe works. For the universe to be the way it is, we have a lot of inexplicable shit to explain. If Dark Matter accounts for odd gravitational and mass discrepancies and is an actual substance or measurable energy, then it makes things easier.
Click to expand...
Hmmm...
If this is true(reasoning seems sound), then it raises a huge question. If we accept that dark matter is indeed an actual substance or form of energy, then what does it consist of? The perplexing thing about this is that we could keep digging and digging. Its like space, but in reverse. It seems that everything has to be composed of "something", so is this an infinite hole in the same way that the outer reaches beyond space seem to be an infinite field composed of "something", no matter how far out we go?

I guess there isnt a proper answer to this, but it mesmerizes my mind to consider the possibilities.
 
abstract alien

abstract alien

Member
fallout said:
This might be a good read for you, abstract alien:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0553380168/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Click to expand...
Thanks! Ive read a few pieces from Hawking, he has such a brilliant mind. Ive never seen this book, so Ill definitely pick this up.

*Places order*

Also,

fallout said:
We really don't even notice it. For instance, Sergei Krikalev has spent more time in space than any other human (803d 9h 39 m). While doing so, he was moving at 7600 metres per second (17,000 miles per hour) and is 1/48th of a second younger than if he had not gone into space at all. Or, you could say that relative to us, he has traveled 1/48th of a second into the future.
Click to expand...
To be blunt, I said wow.
 
A

AndersTheSwede

Member
About dark matter, I've always found it fascinating that we first became aware of it it not because of some great directly observed discovery, but simply because the math wasn't adding up in terms of galaxies being able to coalesce with the amount of "normal" matter calculated to be within them IIRC.

It simultaneously shows how far our mathematical understanding of the university has come and how woeful our knowledge really is.
 
F

fallout

Member
abstract alien said:
Thanks! Ive read a few pieces from Hawking, he has such a brilliant mind. Ive never seen this book, so Ill definitely pick this up.
Click to expand...
Take it slow. It mostly focuses on the "basic" structure and composition of the universe, but it can be a bit of a mindfuck at times.
 
abstract alien

abstract alien

Member
AndersTheSwede said:
About dark matter, I've always found it fascinating that we first became aware of it it not because of some great directly observed discovery, but simply because the math wasn't adding up in terms of galaxies being able to coalesce with the amount of "normal" matter calculated to be within them IIRC.

It simultaneously shows how far our mathematical understanding of the university has come and how woeful our knowledge really is.
Click to expand...
Fascinating indeed

fallout said:
Take it slow. It mostly focuses on the "basic" structure and composition of the universe, but it can be a bit of a mindfuck at times.
Click to expand...
Hai!
 
U

User2k

Member
I love these size comparisons. I feel small when walking around downtown Montreal, these size comparisons just blow my mind. Thinking of taking a class in astrology, shit is fascinating.
 
B

br0ken_shad0w

Member
abstract alien said:
I know these may be a bit pointless to ask, but sometimes its hard to phathom such things...

Well, exactly what is at the edge of our universe? Its difficult to imagine what could possibly be at the rim of what we know as space, so much so that Im not sure anything would make sense even if it could be seen. If space, or our universe, is still growing, then are we overlapping what sits on our rim, or pushing it outward? What the hell sits outside of the contents that make up said rim?
Click to expand...

There really is no "edge" of the universe. You have to not think that the big bang happened at a point in space since the big bang is space itself. Of course there might be something out there that might fit your description if this article is to be believed. The universe is truly fascinating.
 
D

Desperado

Member
User2k said:
I love these size comparisons. I feel small when walking around downtown Montreal, these size comparisons just blow my mind. Thinking of taking a class in astrology, shit is fascinating.
Click to expand...

Dude, horoscopes aren't real.
 
X

XMonkey

lacks enthusiasm.
o10pk1.gif


In January 2002, a dull star in an obscure constellation suddenly became 600,000 times more luminous than our Sun, temporarily making it the brightest star in our galaxy. The star, called V838 Monocerotis, has long since faded back to obscurity, but observations of a phenomenon called a "light echo" around the star have uncovered remarkable new features over the following years (this animation covers two years' time). The light echo is light from the earlier explosion echoing off dust surrounding the star. Light from the outburst traveled to the dust and then was reflected to Earth. Because of this indirect path, the light arrived at Earth months after light from the star that traveled directly from the star.
Click to expand...

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/hubble_space_telescope_advent.html
 
M

MrPing1000

Member
I was watching some university style programme on BBC2 hosted by this young lad with a PhD in physics.

Anyway the programme was about time and in a segment he was talking to the guy that was in charge of the hubble. He has the privilege of doing whatever he likes with like 10% of the hubble's time.

So anyway the Hubble Deep Field was what he chose to do.

Not only is there the picture. THEY HAVE A 3D ANIMATION THAT SHOWS DEPTH, AND ALSO AS A BYPRODUCT HOW FAR BACK IN TIME YOU ARE LOOKING AT.

Woo, will try and find it.

Ah here we go. Programme is called Horizon, Professor Brian Cox asks the question, "What time is it?"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxf

Uk users can watch it there.
 
H

Hootie

Member
I forgot if this has been posted in this thread previously, but even so, it deserves to be seen again (massive picture incoming):

Galactic_Cntr_full.jpg


If I'm not mistaken, EVERY single one of those dots is a star.
 
X

XMonkey

lacks enthusiasm.
A few more off the Big Picture blog linked above. They'll be updating every day this month until Christmas with a new Hubble image.

juhg01.jpg

This image, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), represents a small section of a larger mosaic - the sharpest view ever taken of the Orion Nebula - a picture book of star formation with massive young stars that are shaping the nebula and pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars. The bright glow at left is from M43, a small region being shaped by ultraviolet light from a massive young star. Astronomers call the region a miniature Orion Nebula because only one star is sculpting the landscape. The Orion Nebula has four such stars. The Orion Nebula is 1,500 light-years away, the nearest star-forming region to Earth.
Click to expand...

2zhidxl.jpg

Called I Zwicky 18, this galaxy - some 59 million light-years distant - has a youthful appearance that resembles galaxies typically found only in the early universe. Hubble has now found faint, older stars within this galaxy, suggesting that the galaxy may have formed at the same time as most other galaxies. I Zwicky 18 is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy and is much smaller than our Milky Way Galaxy. The concentrated bluish-white knots embedded in the heart of the galaxy are two major starburst regions where stars are forming at a furious rate. The wispy blue filaments surrounding the central starburst regions are bubbles of gas that have been blown away by stellar winds and supernovae explosions from a previous generation of hot, young stars. A companion galaxy lies just above and to the left and may be interacting with I Zwicky 18.
Click to expand...
 
P

PjotrStroganov

Member
DarkJediKnight said:
WHAT?!!!!! NEVER EVER SAY THAT!! (although that is just beautiful!) THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE IMAGE!

hubbleUltraDeepField_2004-07-d-full_jpg.jpg


THE HUBBLE DEEP FIELD!
Click to expand...

In one of the latest episodes of BBC's Horizon, called 'Do you know what time it is', an astronomer explained that with that picture, scientists can actually look back in time. All those galaxies are light years away from each other, meaning that the light those galaxies emit took different amounts of time reaching us. The light of furthest galaxy has travelled about 13 billion years to reach us. Given the fact that the universe is around 14 billion years old, we are able to peer into the beginning of the universe. By zooming out we can observe the evolution our universe has gone through.
 
F

fallout

Member
Hootie said:
I forgot if this has been posted in this thread previously, but even so, it deserves to be seen again (massive picture incoming):

http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/showcase/galcen/Galactic_Cntr_full.jpg

If I'm not mistaken, EVERY single one of those dots is a star.
Click to expand...
You are correct, good sir! As the file name indicates, that's an image of the centre of the Milky Way (our galaxy). It would be fairly difficult to see another galaxy through that big mass of stars.
 
H

Hootie

Member
Dax01 said:
It's so awesome (Hootie's picture) it hurts for me to stare at it.:lol
Click to expand...

Gives you some perspective on how insignificant we are. Just think, that's a fraction of a fraction of the entire galaxy, and there are billions more galaxies.

headexplode.gif


Also makes me chuckle when they talk about galatic extermination in Mass Effect. That shit would take a long time. :lol
 
M

Memphis Reigns

Member
There are some good shows that are airing on the National Geographic channel tonight. One is a Naked Science episode that is on right now, and then a premiere of a show called Journey to the Edge of the Universe airs right after.
 
D

DarkJediKnight

Member
Memphis Reigns said:
There are some good shows that are airing on the National Geographic channel tonight. One is a Naked Science episode that is on right now, and then a premiere of a show called Journey to the Edge of the Universe airs right after.
Click to expand...

JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE starts at 8pm est. DO NOT miss it!!
 
D

DarkJediKnight

Member
I'm trying to find some info on stars, and googling didn't help. Wondering if anyone can satisfy my curiousity here.

Ok, we know that the closest star system to us is the Alpha Centauri, which is roughly 4.5 light years away. Now, is this roughly the common distance from one star system to another throughout the Galaxy?

For example, are the multiple star systems within less than lightyear from each other?
 
F

fallout

Member
DarkJediKnight said:
Ok, we know that the closest star system to us is the Alpha Centauri, which is roughly 4.5 light years away. Now, is this roughly the common distance from one star system to another throughout the Galaxy?

For example, are the multiple star systems within less than lightyear from each other?
Click to expand...
That's an interesting question, actually. I don't have a specific answer for you, but here are a few things to keep in mind. First off, there will always be more stars towards the centre of a galaxy. Furthermore, our galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy, meaning that the stars are distributed along multiple arms extending from a "central" point. It looks like this:

614px-Milky_Way_Arms.svg.png


We're located on the Orion arm, which is the yellow strip near the top. The point where all the lines extend from it is our Sun. GC is the Galactic Centre. You can read little bit about the Orion Arm here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Arm

Now, here's where things got interesting in my digging (and I mean, really interesting ... seriously, thank you for asking this). The Gould Belt sort of comprises an area of the Orion Arm (there's a lot of overlap in astronomy, heh) where our Sun is found. I happened on this:

http://galaxymap.org/detail_maps/gould.html

The Sun is at the middle. You can see the outline for 500 parsecs (~1500 ly). The nearest point there is Melotte 111, known as the Coma star cluster, which is about 96 pc (340 ly) away. Obviously, it's not on the level that you're looking for, but it should give you an idea of how things are distributed. Keep in mind that some things in there are stars, some are clusters, some are molecular clouds. Here's the main page:

http://galaxymap.org/drupal/node/45
 
D

DarkJediKnight

Member
fallout said:
That's an interesting question, actually. I don't have a specific answer for you, but here are a few things to keep in mind. First off, there will always be more stars towards the centre of a galaxy. Furthermore, our galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy, meaning that the stars are distributed along multiple arms extending from a "central" point. It looks like this:

614px-Milky_Way_Arms.svg.png


We're located on the Orion arm, which is the yellow strip near the top. The point where all the lines extend from it is our Sun. GC is the Galactic Centre. You can read little bit about the Orion Arm here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Arm

Now, here's where things got interesting in my digging (and I mean, really interesting ... seriously, thank you for asking this). The Gould Belt sort of comprises an area of the Orion Arm (there's a lot of overlap in astronomy, heh) where our Sun is found. I happened on this:

http://galaxymap.org/detail_maps/gould.html

The Sun is at the middle. You can see the outline for 500 parsecs (~1500 ly). The nearest point there is Melotte 111, known as the Coma star cluster, which is about 96 pc (340 ly) away. Obviously, it's not on the level that you're looking for, but it should give you an idea of how things are distributed. Keep in mind that some things in there are stars, some are clusters, some are molecular clouds. Here's the main page:

http://galaxymap.org/drupal/node/45
Click to expand...

Cool info. Thanks.
 
M

msv

Member
fallout said:
[...galaxymap]
Click to expand...
Wow, man I've been dying to see something like this. There really aren't enough of these. Is there a similiar map, but instead of stars/star-clusters, galaxies?
 
F

fallout

Member
msv said:
Wow, man I've been dying to see something like this. There really aren't enough of these. Is there a similiar map, but instead of stars/star-clusters, galaxies?
Click to expand...
Google turned this up:

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/localgr.html

The area we are in is known as the Local Group. It's a cluster of galaxies that is in a supercluster of other clusters known as the Virgo Supercluster. Also, if you keep zooming in, you can get down to what DarkJediKnight was looking for:

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/12lys.html
 
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