patrick.net

I thought astronomers were crucified in the middle ages for NOT believing that Earth or our Sun for that matter, was NOT the center of the Universe. So here we are centuries later, and we're still the center of the Universe in spite of our selves.

Interesting picture, thought I'm curious to know is the orbital path of the sun, and the relationship to other star's orbital path. How can we be in a spiral galaxy and yet remain static?

TPB says

So here we are centuries later, and we're still the center of the Universe in spite of our selves.

Not quite. The map shows stars in polar coordinates relative to the sun. It does not imply that the stars revolve around the sun. We accept that the stars revolve around the galactic center, which is indicated on the map.

Nice map.

Now we just need to figure out how to travel 50 light years.

Dan8267 says

ot quite. The map shows stars in polar coordinates relative to the sun. It does not imply that the stars revolve around the sun. We accept that the stars revolve around the galactic center, which is indicated on the map.

I'm a "the whole picture" kinda guy. If all we only know "This" then, we have no idea what "That" is.

http://www.GZj2lnAhd3s

http://www.IbqkY4PDuzs

http://www.XzPBUGUM7KQ

I just want to see how much of a conversation we can have using only YouTube clips.

http://www.O-Y-ua3WBi4

Thanks for the mind tweaker Dan. I found these buried in email files. Hopefully they will help others realize tailgating won't get us there any faster.





Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky. 
It is fairly close* to us too... only about 600 light years away.
(Meaning that its light, traveling at 186,282 miles per second, only takes 600 years to reach us!)
 
[*Note on the "close" distance: To put this 600 light years into perspective...
The furthest celestial body visible to the naked eye is the Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
is approximately 800,000 "parsecs" away (800 kiloparsecs)... that's roughly 2,610,000 light years away!
The "particle horizon", the horizon of the visible part of the universe, is 4 "gigaparsecs" away...
That's 4 billion parsecs, or 13.2 billion (13,200,000,000) light years away from us!
Our sun is only 8.3 light-minutes from the earth!]
 
It's almost unfathomable to think about.



Now how big are you?
And how big are the things that upset you day to day?
Or for that matter, the things that are important?
Keep life in prospective!

http://www.pCrjLVSapII

http://www._BwKZEp2K_0

TMAC54 says

It's almost unfathomable to think about.



Now how big are you?

Planck Length is about 1.6 × 10^-35m. Humans are about 1.6 × 10^0 m. So humans are 10^35 times larger than Planck Length

The universe is estimated to be about 90 billion light years, although it's still up to debate. But let's use that as an estimate. 90 billion light years = 8.51447556 × 10^26 meters. Using a logarithmic scale, humans are pretty much in the middle of the scale of scales.

Dan8267 says

Using a logarithmic scale, humans are pretty much in the middle of the scale of scales.

10^-35th and 10 ^ 26th doesn't really put us in the middle. We're center right ;-)

Also, this is all as measured from human perspective with human technological limitations. For all we know at this point we could be much further to the right or left of that scale, but we simply lack the technology to observe the smaller or larger objects. Small seems particularly difficult.

The left side of the ruler is pretty much solid. The right side is open.

Arcturus. A dream that will never come true: Getting a chance to get close enough to see it in all it's glory with my naked eye from an orbit around it.

Another much easier dream: A manned trip to Io.

I think we need a "Space Party" that works to get scientific and exploration minded people in government.

Imagine if we spent $200B on space exploration every year.

thunderlips11 says

I think we need a "Space Party"

Oh Goody, I'll handle the invitations and music!

I'm a HS Math teacher, but about 40 years ago, my geometry teacher showed me this (above) on a piece of paper he would flip over that we could see through, saying that it was proof that God had a sense of humor.

Please, no religious arguments, just sharing an anecdote from my youth. I always show this to kids, sharing the same story. Who knows, maybe the guy that made this (on Igmur and posted on Reddit) got it from someone who got it from someone etc., etc, connecting back to me or my geometry teacher.

blink blink

EightBall says

The Scale of the Universe.

http://htwins.net/scale2/