When I was about 13 or so, a friend of my dads gave me that book. I was interested but hated to read and understood none of it. Now that I like to read and have a better understanding I can't find that book to save my life. My brother also gave me a book about time/space. I'll have to crack that open now that I have plenty of off time for the next five months.


I sometimes like to think about or figure out some things I know no one is capable of understanding. Like how far out the universe goes. It doesn't end. But why? How far out is it and what's there, but there is no end. Infinity. How can it go on forever? How can something not end? Where's it going, wait, it can't go there because it's already past it, but where is that!!!!


When I completely confuse myself about that, I just think, "man, my wife's automobile has enough miles on it to travel to the moon. (She's got 270,000 miles on that thing over the 13 years she's had it!!) I'm hoping it can get back, she's hoping it slips off into the vastness of space.

 

It might not even be infinitely large. It may be a finite (but expanding) size that simply has no "edge" or "end". Like space is the surface of a bubble that keeps expanding, there is no "edge" per se but it is still finite in size.

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This explains it all.

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Speaking of mind-boggling things and the vastness of Space..

 

speaking of which....you'd think that something so incredible and vast could have inspired a better name than, uhh.... "Space"....lol. 

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speaking of which....you'd think that something so incredible and vast could have inspired a better name than, uhh.... "Space"....lol. 

To quote Neil deGrasse Tyson:


"In my field, we call it like we see it. Unlike the geologists, or the biologists, or the chemists that go out of their way to make words this long so you have no idea what they're talking about. Alright? With us, it's all one syllable: Big Bang, black hole, red giant, white dwarf. There is a red spot on Jupiter, it's called Jupiter's Red Spot. There are spots on the sun, we call them sun spots. Okay? That's official lexicon because the universe is complex enough to lay a smokescreen of vocabulary. To distance you from who it is you're trying to communicate all of its grandeur to."


From this interview.


Note: There may be some screw ups in the quote because I took it directly from the video and I would make a terrible CC writer.

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Any of you guys watch the special on science channel? I thought I dvr'd it. But didn't. It's on now but going to record the re-run at 100am.

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Any of you guys watch the special on science channel? I thought I dvr'd it. But didn't. It's on now but going to record the re-run at 100am.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'll be DVRing it too.

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Thanks for the heads up. I'll be DVRing it too.

No problem. Hopefully I will learn something interesting when I watch it while waiting on the games to come on tomorrow.


Edit: just watched it. I was a little disappointed. I was thinking it would be more about the comet and less about trying to get a look at it.

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speaking of which....you'd think that something so incredible and vast could have inspired a better name than, uhh.... "Space"....lol. 

Fine. Universe, Multiverse, Metaverse, Megaverse, Xenoverse, Hyperverse, Omniverse, etc.

 

Take your pick.

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Fine. Universe, Multiverse, Metaverse, Megaverse, Xenoverse, Hyperverse, Omniverse, etc.

 

Take your pick.

Cosmos is also an option.

 

 

 

No problem. Hopefully I will learn something interesting when I watch it while waiting on the games to come on tomorrow.


Edit: just watched it. I was a little disappointed. I was thinking it would be more about the comet and less about trying to get a look at it.

 

Yeah, I was a little disappointed as well. The show just before it (I forgot the name, sorry) was much more interesting (at least the part I saw) and covered the idea of landing on comets.

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I'm using this thread as the general science depository.

 

If you want to see the International Space Station this evening in the Jacksonville area, NASA says:

 

SpotTheStation / Time: Mon Dec 09 6:25 PM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 55 degrees, Appears: WSW, Disappears: NNE

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I'm using this thread as the general science depository.

 

If you want to see the International Space Station this evening in the Jacksonville area, NASA says:

 

SpotTheStation / Time: Mon Dec 09 6:25 PM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 55 degrees, Appears: WSW, Disappears: NNE

 

Thanks for the info .... i'll be out on the balcony checking it out (hopefully)

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The Oort cloud, which consists of trillions of chunks of ice and rock (and also happens to be where ISON originated), forms a kind of globe around the last vestiges of the Sun's gravitational influence.  To give an idea of scale, the Earth resides on average around 93,000,000 miles from the Sun, or what is referred to as an Astronomical Unit.  If we were to place an object at the center of a table and another object about a half inch away to represent an AU, the Oort cloud would be 50,000 AUs away, or a sphere of about 3/10 of a mile in diameter surrounding that table.  That's almost two light years, or over 10 trillion miles.  That is just our sun.  Our Milky Way galaxy consists of hundreds of billions of suns and measures over 100,000 light years in width.

 

Now, with the size of our one single galaxy in mind, watch this:

 

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/impor...-by-hubble

 

Wow, that's incredible.   I admit, I am not adding much to the discussion, but I had to say it.   When they applied the red-shifts to the ultra-deep field, and put it in motion, words are not sufficient.  

 

Thank you to all the scientists who have ever lived.  

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Did anyone else see it?  I watched it for a couple of minutes but lost it behind some clouds as it reached the NNE.  It looked like a very high flying, and very fast, airplane.  

 

Cool beans.  B)

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Did anyone else see it?  I watched it for a couple of minutes but lost it behind some clouds as it reached the NNE.  It looked like a very high flying, and very fast, airplane.  

 

Cool beans.  B)

Didn't catch it today but I caught it a few weeks back. Pretty cool stuff. Afterwards I had to google how fast it was going and all that good stuff.

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Did anyone else see it?  I watched it for a couple of minutes but lost it behind some clouds as it reached the NNE.  It looked like a very high flying, and very fast, airplane.  

 

Cool beans.  B)

And to think that, that thing orbits around the Earth 16 times a day at a speed of 17,500 MPH, at roughly 7.71 kilometers per second, at a height of 230 miles up.

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And to think that, that thing orbits around the Earth 16 times a day at a speed of 17,500 MPH, at roughly 7.71 kilometers per second, at a height of 230 miles up.

 

Oh yeah, that thing is cookin'.  I signed up to receive a text message from NASA every time it is visible in our area.  I'm such a geek.   :geek:

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Oh yeah, that thing is cookin'.  I signed up to receive a text message from NASA every time it is visible in our area.  I'm such a geek.   :geek:

 

You and me both.

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Check out this starship-like view of Earth, taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it flew past Earth on October 9, 2013.

 

http://earthsky.org/space/juno-captured-...h-and-moon

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Nothing to do with a comet, but I heard talk of beginning to colonize Mars by 2025. I hope I live to see it. I think that would be way cool.

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Nothing to do with a comet, but I heard talk of beginning to colonize Mars by 2025. I hope I live to see it. I think that would be way cool.

 

I'm a fan of the idea, and I really hope that I'm able to live to 30. If it's through the Mars One mission/society/program/thing then I believe the plan is to have it be televised which means that it's quite possible that you will literally see it.

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