Space In General

BubbleBelly542

BubbleBelly542

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BubbleBelly542
Talk about space in general.

I'm going to say a a few things about space.
Anything seems possible out there. Who's to say it's not?
How does space make you feel? I can tell you it makes me feel so small. But it makes me feel so special. When I stare up at the night sky, the the wondering I do makes it seem as if the world as I know it is fake, meaningless.
Space is the ultimate of the unknown. It makes me sad yet happy in a strange way that I will probably never be up there. My generation won't know a billionth of what is to be known about space. And probably neither will several generations to come.
Space scares me. If you think about it, foreign beings from a billion miles away could grab me up and take me any second.
Anyone who doesn't believe in aliens does not have a practical imagination. What I mean by this is that if one does not use their imagination to wonder what (living or not) is there, especially with extra terrestrial beings, he is limiting himself to what we know now. He doesn't use his creativity to spawn curiosity, which spawn knowledge.

Believers that aliens DON'T EXIST have no proof that they do. Now of course us believers that they do exist.have no true evidence supporting there are, but in this case, we haven't seen everything so we can't rule out the possibility of them. There's so much space (see where the name comes from?) that.there must be something else.
What is outside of space? If the big band theory is really what happened, which in my opinion is what happened even though I'm being raised Catholic, so what contained all of the stuff was shrunk down and exploded?

And people, please don't fight here. It's okay to disagree but think about what you say. Let's just talk about that place up there.
 
I agree on it being somewhat scary at times, but at times its also one of the more beautiful things around. The few times I'm outdoors at night on the water, I can't help but stop and stare at the masses upon masses of stars and wondering what it could all mean and contain. It's just amazing. I just hope my great great great great great grandchild will live in a world where we live with other beings in harmony, not war. Imagine how intelligent (or not.. :lol:) these aliens could be! It's just harrowing to sit down and think about.

This could very easily branch off into alien discussion, and since there is already an "Aliens" thread, you should probably point that out as a no-no in the OP. 👍
 
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BubbleBelly542
Talk about space in general.
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Are you going for the 'new threads in a week' record? :)

Space isn't general to start with. It's complex place that is full of misnomers and paradoxes which vary depending on who's book you read or your personal take on spirituality, physics and current theorem.

Now, I'm no astrophysics, but luckily for me one of my best pals is. It also happens that my father has a doctorate in metaphysics. I know a great deal about the subject, you can imagine, and know that having a thread about 'Space in general' is either, 1) not going to take off (excuse the pun) or 2) end up with raging battles going on between member who believe different theories.

Yes, universe debate is great, I spend lots of time doing it with the right company and a few beers. I really do feel that this site could do without it to be honest.
 
Good idea for a thread. As it happens, I'm working on a concept album about space, but don't want to give too much away.

When I think of the achievements of mankind, I feel like a tiny fish in a huge pond. So thinking about space and what is out there (that we know of) makes me feel even more insignificant. Then when you think of what else might possibly be out there. It's both scary and amazing.
 
Noob616
Someone will link "this pale blue dot" before long.
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Go on then, I wouldn't want to disappoint :D

530px-PaleBlueDot.jpg

"Pale blue dot" - the Earth, as taken from Voyager 1 from around 6 billion kilometres away.
 
homeforsummer
Voyager 1
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Once of the greatest scientific achievements in human history, along with Voyager 2 👍

This video from Voyager 1, the first ever of a 'live' Jupiter, never fails to humble me. The moons whipping by the foreground instils an incredible sense of distance, and yet, the planet is enormous.

 
Please note that there is also an "Astronomy and Cosmology" thread in the Rumble Strip.

Respectfully submitted,
Steve
 
It's probably a matter of time before someone mentions the Space Core from Portal 2...
 
It's funny, I've always been hugely fascinated with space yet never gotten around to reading books on the subject.
 
I have a huge interest in space. I'm an amateur astronomer and like to collect as much information on the subject as I can. I tend to restrict what I do to the Solar System normally. As, even though it is still very large, I can just about get my head around it, and since we already have so much data from it, their is far more to learn about it than from extremely faint stars and galaxies that we'll never visit.
 
PeterJB
I have a huge interest in space. I'm an amateur astronomer and like to collect as much information on the subject as I can. I tend to restrict what I do to the Solar System normally.
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PeterJB, one of the all-time great science mysteries of the solar system is now a step closer to explanation. The surface of the sun, known as the photosphere, can reach temperatures of 5,000 degrees. To many it would seem logical that the temperature would lower further away from the sun. But, the outer atmosphere, known as the corona, has been shown to reach temperatures of over a million degrees.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-07-power-sun-intense.html
The study uses satellite observations to reveal that magnetic oscillations carrying energy from the Sun's surface into its corona are far more vigorous than previously thought. These waves are energetic enough to heat the corona and drive the solar wind, a stream of charged particles ejected from the Sun that affects the entire solar system.

Alfven waves were directly observed for the first time in 2007. Scientists recognized them as a mechanism for transporting energy upward along the Sun's magnetic field into the corona. But the 2007 observations showed amplitudes on the order of about 1,600 feet (0.5 kilometers) per second, far too small to heat the corona to its high levels or to drive the solar wind. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/317/5842/1192.abstract

General info on Alfven waves: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfvén_wave

Respectfully submitted,
Steve
 
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I would recommend getting hold of a copy of Wonders of the Universe by Brian Cox or a Bluray/DVD of the TV series. It answers (or gets closer to answering) a lot of your questions; alien life, what does the universe expand into, what is the life expectancy of the universe and how will it die, etc. Plus he's a very good read.

:)
 
Juno just launched... so far so good.

Edit: Free of Earth's gravity, looks like the mission is underway.
 
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The presence of other planets makes one wonder if indeed there was a "hand" of sorts in the creation of such things.

In any case,

How much longer until we can exploit Jupiter's gases for energy?
 
Depends if we can make a probe that can extract Hydrogen, whilst resisting the influence of Jupiter's enormous gravity well, and then return to Earth. Could be a while.
 
The thing I found most interesting about this mission, is it will be the fastest man made object in history, reaching an incredible speed of 160,000 mph!
 
You need to take a zero off that figure. :) At that speed it would be there in a few months!
 
It's kind of a dubious thing. I mean... with respect to what? is the question I always ask.

Just sitting on the surface of the earth you're moving really fast.
 
Danoff
It's kind of a dubious thing. I mean... with respect to what? is the question I always ask.

Just sitting on the surface of the earth you're moving really fast.
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In respect of speed travelling away from the Sun, that's the relative I believe.
 
Danoff
It's kind of a dubious thing. I mean... with respect to what? is the question I always ask.

Just sitting on the surface of the earth you're moving really fast.
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Everything gets very confusing when you take into account that the Earth orbits the Sun at roughly 30 km/s, and then the Sun orbits the center of the Milk Way at roughly 100 km/s, and then the Milky Way must orbit...whatever at God only knows what speed!
 
I don't think the Milky Way orbits anything, but It's getting closer to Andromeda galaxy at about 120km/s or 268,000mph , which means contact in 3-5 billion years time.
 
Moot
I don't think the Milky Way orbits anything
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Most astronomers would agree with this, since it might imply the universe itself is rotating, an idea which astronomers are very reluctant to allow.

However, according to one shocking study, it may be that most galaxies in the northern sky rotate left-handed, and most galaxies in the southern sky rotate right-handed, and are mostly all lined up with the CMB cold spot:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.2815
A preference for spiral galaxies in one sector of the sky to be left-handed or right-handed spirals would indicate a parity violating asymmetry in the overall universe and a preferred axis.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23410/
Michael Longo at the University of Michigan has long been searching for another asymmetry--a preference for right or left handedness in spiral galaxies. And he says he's found it, previously in an analysis of over 2600 nearby spiral galaxies and now in an analysis of 15,000 more.

The evidence seems to indicate that left handed spirals are more common in the northern hemisphere, above the northern galactic pole. And although the signal is less strong, right-handed spirals appear more frequently in the south.

What's more, Longo says the axis of this alignment points directly towards the mysterious cold spot in the cosmic microwave background, which was discovered in the southern hemisphere in 2004."


If true, this could violate isotropy or homogeneity, hints at a non-zero rate of rotation for the universe, and may even leave the door open for an Einstein-Rosen bridge or wormhole to another universe. Mind-boggling stuff for cosmologists!

Respectfully,
Steve
 

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