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Space: The Final Frontier
- Thread starter Windu
- Start date
What is this shot of?
International Space Station I'm assuming. Over some big storm system with an Aurora Borealis.
Maklershed
Member
We need more Miranda Lawsons.
lots of Neil deGrasse Tyson stuff posted recently, but was his talk in front of the senate science committee posted as well?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmKlA_UnX8c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmKlA_UnX8c
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
That video was annoying because you can tell the people he's preaching to aren't quite getting exactly what he's saying and so his rants are falling on deaf ears in the most important places.
'We have to keep on keeeeepin on'
It's like they're trying not to fall asleep because they're late on their afternoon naps.
'We have to keep on keeeeepin on'
It's like they're trying not to fall asleep because they're late on their afternoon naps.
WeAreStarStuff
Member
A swirling cloud formation and the lights of the Aurora Borealis, seen from the International Space Station, high above the Gulf of Alaska, on February 10, 2012. (NASA)
So I'm in bed right now reading Wikipedia articles about the universe/space and a few questions popped into my head.
If The Big Bang is what caused the universe to exist how can life/awareness form from the evolution of exploding gases billions of years ago?
Also, why do we keep looking to answer the question of how it all began? What if the universe JUST exists? Is it not possible for it to have always been there? Is it because it's still expanding?
Help me GAF, help me get some closure.
If The Big Bang is what caused the universe to exist how can life/awareness form from the evolution of exploding gases billions of years ago?
Also, why do we keep looking to answer the question of how it all began? What if the universe JUST exists? Is it not possible for it to have always been there? Is it because it's still expanding?
Help me GAF, help me get some closure.
Maklershed
Member
I believe the beginning is life is thought to be from random and very lucky clashing of ammino acids. And yes, the universe is still expanding. At an ever increasing rate too.
wolfmat
Confirmed Asshole
It's not like there were gases at one moment and poof, life/awareness at another. There's a cause-and-effect chain that contains billions and billions of links. It's extremely hard to guess how it happened, and evidence is spotty at best for huge time chunks. But it has something to do with entropy.
I guess people have their personal reasons. But curiosity is probably really important.
Like, suppose there's this ONE data point that clears it all up. Wouldn't you want to find it?
Now, suppose there're these FIVE data points that clear it all up after a little bit of thinking. Wouldn't you want to be involved, wouldn't you want to be able to think along, talk about it, whatever?
Expand this ad infinitum.
What-ifs don't really play a role in science. It's all about evidence. If you can present evidence for your particular idea, that would be quite interesting to scientists.
Needless to say, all evidence gathered so far suggests that the universe had a violent beginning. But noone knows how that beginning was made possible.
There are a lot of pointers. The most prominent one is background radiation, which basically points to a big expanding bubble-like surface around the universe.
Another more subtle pointer is the fact that entropy is found everywhere. So if all this star stuff mangles together to get to a stable state in the end no matter where you look, and you postulate that the universe has always been there, then you've got a paradox.
Your first question is exactly what makes the universe so awesome. Through natural processes, life and conciousness emerged that through evolution, became self aware. I believe Carl Sagan said it best when he said "We are a way for the Universe to know itself"
These gases formed stars, which formed the heavier elements, which then exploded and scattered them across the universe where other stars were forming from the dead stars dust clouds, this dust coalesced into planets that had the elements of life on them. Give it billions of years and eventually you get molecules that can split off from themselves and grow 2 molecules from 1. Beginnings of reproduction and copying. So and and so forth, it gets more complex, natural selection takes over, shits awesome.
It's one of the coolest things to reflect upon.
As far as your second question goes, no one knows for sure. We're still figuring that one out. The one theory I like is that due to the nature of quantum mechanics and the fact that our universe has a NET energy of zero (we're not gaining energy and we're not losing any) something can theoretically come from "nothing" since it doesn't take anything to get it started. The big bang also isn't an explosion, its just an expansion (which we're trying to find out how it works) Anyway, so the "stuff" of the universe has always been around because that's the natural state, its the expansion and crunch that makes the universe what it is. The theory I like basically says that the universe expands until it reaches a certain point, then it collapses back in until it gets to a small enough space, then another "big bang" happens. And this keeps going on for eternity.
Does time also go backwards during the Big Crunch, like in Red Dwarf
How would you square that theory with the evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating?
That's the theory, yes.
technically "size" didn't exist in the singularity.
As the universe expands, so, too, do the concepts of space and time (and these things technically didn't exist "before" the big bang).
Simple: If the jerk of the universe is negative, then the acceleration is slowing down. Once the acceleration enters negative territory, then the expansion begins slowing down....Does time also go backwards during the Big Crunch, like in Red Dwarf
How would you square that theory with the evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating?
Once the expansion enters negative territory, then the universe begins to contract, and become smaller.
Simple: If the jerk of the universe is negative, then the acceleration is slowing down. Once the acceleration enters negative territory, then the expansion begins slowing down....
Once the expansion enters negative territory, then the universe begins to contract, and become smaller.
You're a jerk of the Universe
sorry, couldn't resist
I understand the theory, just seems a little counter-factual to me.
Maklershed
Member
From a show I was wathcing recently (it was a 4 part series on PBS - don't remember the name though). They were theorizing the universe will keep expanding to the point that our galaxy will be the only thing around us in a sea of infinite black and billions of years after that it will get to the point that even particles will be so spread apart that existence itself will be black to the extent that the effects of time wont be observable anymore.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Simple: If the jerk of the universe is negative, then the acceleration is slowing down. Once the acceleration enters negative territory, then the expansion begins slowing down....
Once the expansion enters negative territory, then the universe begins to contract, and become smaller.
But, I thought it was generally accepted that the universe is not slowing down, and is in fact increasing in acceleration? In other words there never will be a "big crunch", it will expand forever. As other galaxies increase in speed away from us eventually past the speed of light we will cease to see them at all. In time we will only see the stars of our milky way in the sky, and as they slowly die out one at a time our night sky become empty. Assuming our own sun allows us to exist long enough to see that moment.
At this point it's a fact that expansion of universe is accelerating and not slowing down.
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
I think there's two things we're talking about: universes and the Universe. I think our universe is a part of a gigantic series of connected universes called The Universe. And I think it looks like this:
that's broccoli.
I think the Universe probably looks like a multi-dimensional broccoli, where each tiny little head is its own universe, born on top of or next to or out of the last universe. I think they're all connected, and there's no such thing as a beginning, at least in the capital U-Universe.
When our universe goes cold and dark, I'm imagining our little teeny head of broccoli being torn apart and poured into/absorbed into the surrounding little heads.
that's broccoli.
I think the Universe probably looks like a multi-dimensional broccoli, where each tiny little head is its own universe, born on top of or next to or out of the last universe. I think they're all connected, and there's no such thing as a beginning, at least in the capital U-Universe.
When our universe goes cold and dark, I'm imagining our little teeny head of broccoli being torn apart and poured into/absorbed into the surrounding little heads.
Lucky Forward
Member
The Apollo 11 landing site captured from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
There have been shots of the Apollo landing sites from the LRO released before, but never from this low an altitude (24km or 15 mi).
Memphis Reigns
Member
Someone already mentioned it here, but Carl Sagan's quote (and one of his best) "we are a way for the universe to know itself" almost leads me to believe that life is inevitable given enough time. Meaning even if the primary elements in the universe were completely different, life would still arise. It also makes me think that the universe may have some sort of conscious, hence the part about knowing itself. But we basically are the universe. We are in it, and it is in us. Life was not a fluke.
When Hubble discovered the receding galaxies in 1929 and proved that the universe was expanding, it became clear that there needed to have been a starting point, otherwise the universe would just be static. Just imagine dropping a pebble into a pond and watching the waves ripple away. If you watched it in reverse, the waves would all come back to the same exact point. If galaxies are all moving away from one another, they had to have been close together at some point in time.
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
Well, no. I was thinking that the universe might go well with cheese, though.
Guys, I'm playing devils advocate here.
If we are the universe what would be the purpose of life, death, disease, suffering? Shouldn't we be like gods then?
Shouldn't we be born with knowledge already? Why would we be looking for answers?
Memphis Reigns
Member
The universe is imperfect. As beautiful and complex as it is, its also extremely chaotic. Why should we be any different if we are part of it? If anything, death, disease and suffering mirrors the very nature of the universe itself. Stars are created, they live, and then they die. As do all living things. The universe was born and is theorized to even die at some point. This pattern and cycle that seems to be inherent across the cosmos is very humbling.
wolfmat
Confirmed Asshole
What is purpose? Is it anything but a concept in your mind?
Aren't we like gods, considering that we know of no living being with capabilities beyond ours? Is the human race one god? Is life one god?
Effectively meaningless questions.
Knowledge is a function of the brain. The brain has a capacity for knowledge, but it has to be imprinted via the senses and deduction. Since the brain grows as we are born, all the knowledge we could hope for would be all the imprints from inside the wombs of our mothers.
Interestingly, that is actual knowledge, and it exists. So we ARE born with knowledge. You're just having difficulties referencing it.
We cultivated science over thousands of years. It is a self-trained behavior of this species. It originates in the species's need to know its surroundings.
We're one possible arrangement of particles in an evolving universe far too big in space and time for us to have any significance on the larger scale of stars and galaxies.
Death, disease, suffering are meaningless to anything other than the brains experience of such things. We can trace our evolution and see the "purpose" of experiences, and why once happened upon they survived. We look for answers because answers motivate us. Probably something to do with the evolution of complex language and us being social animals. Bigger brains, motivation to solve problems.
As a hobby and inspired by a brilliant stargazing show that was on over christmas here in the UK, I've been writing a solar system simulator that gradually spiralled out of control into a fullblown stellarium. Out of interest I put all the Appollo landing sites in, as their latittude and longitude are readilly available.
It's humerous how they're all on the side facing the Earth, as though we fired buckshot at it almost.
Incidently while I'm on the subject of planetary predictions, this is what my simulator throws out for the 5th/6th of June (viewed from earth)
Venus suddenly goes retorgrade and is due to do a nice little transit of the Sun. I don't mind admitting I'm quite proud of how close my sim predicts it, and the correlation of it's path to the nasa figures.
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/venus/Sun2004+2012-2.GIF
I'd provide a link to my simulator as it's a java applet using openGL, but to be honest I'm a little worried about the bandwidth that might consume
Memphis Reigns
Member
Gonna keep the NDT train going. Here is a cool Q&A. Touches on Ant-matter, Isaac Newton, and the expanding universe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KRZQQ_eICo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KRZQQ_eICo
Every time I hear the senators respond it's like hearing someone talk with their head in a fishbowl of water.
Do they aim to no be clear?
Scratch that, silly question.
THis launch video is amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2aCOyOvOw5c#!
When the sound starts to vanish and it's all scary all of a sudden... wow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2aCOyOvOw5c#!
When the sound starts to vanish and it's all scary all of a sudden... wow.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Just watched this 80 minute documentary about the space shuttle program, from start to finish, narrated by William Shatner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvaG0xDdP8g&feature=related
It was very, very good. If you haven't seen it I strongly recommend watching it. Fills me with pride to think that humans did that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvaG0xDdP8g&feature=related
It was very, very good. If you haven't seen it I strongly recommend watching it. Fills me with pride to think that humans did that.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Absolutely love watching the SRB camera videos. My favorite is one I've never been able to find again, which showed the orbiter at night with this blue-green glow around the hull.
Amazing, thanks for sharing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17399985
test jump for the eventual record breaking attempt (trying to break Kittinger's record)
that is an epic shot. it is crazy that it is only from 70k ft and he's jumping from another 50k on top of that to set the record!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17399985
test jump for the eventual record breaking attempt (trying to break Kittinger's record)
Awesome, I would love to do that.
What a rush.
Gorgon
Member
Actually, no. You could have a semi-steady state universe, Fred Hoyle style, in which there is continuous creation of matter and still have a universe that is both infinite and eternal. That would imply that an accelerating universe is a local phenomena that results from local processes of matter creation, with different regions accelerating at different rates. However, this scenario has more problems than the big bang has and there's no real evidence that it is indeed the case. Conceptually though, it could happen.
Gorgon
Member
Wow, nice. We need the Indians and Chinese to spice things up.
That was incredible.
Dumb question: How do they prevent these booster rockets from falling on people's property?
Do they purposefully eject them over the ocean?
Gorgon
Member
Yep. They know what the maximum range is.
mario_O
Member
WOW! Thanks for sharing, most amazing video I've watched in a long time or ever.