Space is pretty cool. We should talk about it and learn things.

I'll start by posting this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7xl_zjz0o8

What you're seeing is 'footage' of the stars clustered around the black hole or Sagittarius A*. See that quick little one they zoom in on there? That is called S2. It takes fifteen years for S2 to orbit around Sgr A*. The distance at which S2 orbits the black hole is about three times that of Pluto from our Sun. Now...how long does it take Pluto to orbit our Sun?? That's right, 248 YEARS. Think about it!

Not enough black holes. How about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OJ_287

Well. You can sort of read that, so I haven't got a whole lot more to add to it. To those who don't like clicking links, basically this article states that there is a black hole. It was discovered that there is a black hole orbiting that black hole. A binary system comprised of black holes! Ridiculous! The black hole orbiting through the accretion disk around the primary black hole was what tipped astronomers off-which is amazing, that they can figure all of this out from so far away. The orbit of the smaller black hole is deteriorating, and it is supposed to merge with the other black hole. But none of us will be around to see it.

And how's this for terrifying!!


The top part is just an artist's rendition. The bottom two pictures though...those are real. That is actual imagery of a star in galaxy RXJ1242-11 being devoured by a black hole! The worst part about it-another star pushed it in. What a jerk.


How about something a little closer to home. Voyager 1 is currently the farthest man made object from home. The little space probe that could keeps on trucking, and has given us some awesome images of our galaxy. My personal favourite is Jupiter in motion. Its on its way to the heliosheath now, and apparently already passed through the heliopause. It's leaving the galaxy!!

Now come on and impart us with your astronomical knowledge. DON'T just post random and awesome pictures. Everybody knows about Astronomy Pic of the Day(if you don't, wtf), and even they explain to you what you are seeing. Give us some awesome facts. If you post a picture of something, TELL us about it. A little more than just 'this awesome nebula'. Do it right, or a murderous star might just push you into a black hole. Just sayin.

I've always had an interest in space that's kind of gone from cool to cool and scary. Just thinking about how insignificant we are on a physical level and knowing that (as far as research goes), Earth is the only planet that we know of capable of sustaining life of this magnitude. Then I think of all the things that can wipe us out in an instant - black holes, gamma rays, etc.

Also, nothing like spacey metal / music and films / games to brighten up the mood!

I read that if you enter a black hole, there's a microscopic chance you may end up in another universe.

wonder what thats like.

Don't despair.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/gov ... =212400371

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_d

There is plenty of room in the universe for inhabitable planets, even if we never come into contact with them.

Ok, but those can't be Earth 2 or 3 in the same way as we live on Earth today, can they? They may be able to support life of some kind, but do they have the same resources at high capacities and all that? Not attacking you or anything, but I'm super curious about this stuff because religion obviously says fuck all about space and there's always stuff like this to get me hyped, even if only for 2 minutes.

They can be, actually.

That Jupiter video is insane. Awesome stuff.

I really do want to eventually learn and maybe study a lot about astronomy, extremely fascinating stuff to me.

I also like to read about astronomy, about things in our Universe in general. I believe space exploration is far too neglected these days (and, in fact, since the US-Soviet Space Race), which is a damn shame because I'd like to see new discoveries made before I die.

Space is infinite.
It is dark.
Space is neutral.
It is cold.

Stars occupy minute areas of space. They are clustered a few billion here. A few billion there. As if seeking consolation in numbers.
Space does not care.

Space does not threaten.
Space does not comfort.
It does not sleep; it does not wake; it does not dream; it does not hope; it does not fear; it does not love; it does not hate; it does not encourage any of these qualities.
Space cannot be measured. It cannot be angered, it cannot be placated. It cannot be summed up. Space is there.
Space is not large and it is not small. It does not live and it does not die. It does not offer truth and neither does it lie.
Space is a remorseless, senseless, impersonal fact.
Space is the absence of time and of matter

Awesome astronomy facts, huh? Let's see...

The ice on Pluto is harder than steel.

The visible universe, while having three dimensions, has no edge or center.

Less than five percent of all matter and energy is directly detectable.

During a gamma ray burst, a star will emit more energy in a few seconds than the sun will in its entire life (this is why they can kill you at any moment).

Less than an octillionth (1 followed by 48 zeroes) of the electromagnetic spectrum is visible to our eyes.

The entire universe, as far back as we can tell, was a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a meter in diameter.
Over the past 13.7 billion years, it's expanded to 78 billion light years across.

Light generated in the sun's core takes 10,000 years to reach its surface, yet light from the surface reaches the Earth in about 8 minutes.

Saturn's density is so low, the entire planet would float on water.

A day on Venus is longer than its year.

That's about all I can think of now.

If you're interested in space, you should check Phil Plait's blog.

My best friend and ex-roommate is doing a double major in physics and astronomy. He owns three telescopes and works at an observatory. We sit and talk about philosophy and space over beers very often. I've learned so much stuff from him, and he's probably the only reason I'm interested in astronomy. I've spent quite a bit of time reading random stuff on Wikipedia and checking out space books.

My favourite thing about space is Obler's Paradox. Link

It's the idea that since there are so many stars in the Universe, when we look up at the sky, every point should terminate on the surface of a star, and thus there would be no "night". That doesn't happen because the stars are so far away that their light hasn't reached us yet. Just blows my mind.

Not space-fact related, but still pretty sweet:

http://www.symphonyofscience.com/

It's auto-tuned clips from different science shows and speakers (Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, etc - even Bill Nye has a segment or two). It's simple in concept, but as someone who's not usually incredibly interested in academia, it actually gets me really pumped for science and astronomy.

I especially recommend the last video 'A Glorious Dawn,' and the 4th from the top, 'Our Place in the Cosmos.'

"One of the great revelations of science exploration is the image of the earth, finite and lonely, bearing the entire human species through the oceans of space and time."

How can one not be swayed by poetry like that?

this is a very, very good thread. it is something i actually escape to deep in mind..
the Pistol Star is one of my favorites-
it is a blue hypergiant, it's luminosity is four million times of our sun, and radiates about as much energy every twenty seconds as much as our sun does in a year...

and the Wolf-Rayet Stars are pretty epic as well-
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~pberlind/a ... stars.html

i have always wondered, what it could be like to just slowly go through a cluster of stars and gas through a little pod.. that would be all i could ever ask for.

This is so awesome, thank you very much. "Science is the poetry of reality." It's very true.

I too find space to be beautiful and interesting, however it kinda gets me down sometimes to think that there theories that state that even the universe itself would end some day. I believe its called the Heat Death Theory. A true testament to the fact that absolutely NOTHING lasts forever.

Carl Sagan has been one of my most respected people in the history of the human race for about a year now. In fact he's probably second only to Ronnie James Dio. I recommend reading his book Pale Blue Dot which is basically about that very quote of his you just posted there. It's probably the most inspirational book I've ever read, which is interesting because it's also about the insignificance of our planet among the vastness of space. He basically explains that every piece of the universe is equally essential to the big picture. Gah, I don't want to butcher his ideas though, just read it!

Actually, there are theories regarding the survival of intelligent life by travelling into a different universe. Quite interesting stuff.

no matter how cool space is, it will never get me to like The Final Frontier.

No, it just makes The Final Frontier awesome lyrically as well as musically.

What the cock?! Do you know the name or details of these theories?

http://www.youtube.com/user/SpaceRip

This guy makes some pretty kickass videos on space

Unfortunately, no, not off hand. I'll try looking for them. If you want you could try wherever they have books about physics in a public library, those seem to usually be stocked with books about things like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaaGi6eaTzY&NR=1

I found this video to be really cool. Music is sorta lame so I just muted it and played Greymachine while watching it.

But seriously, pretty awesome stuff. I'm a believer of UFO's as it is so this doesn't blow my mind but its still pretty awesome to see.

I love learning about space, though it absolutely terrifies me. Where else can you see things like this? A star that looks like the Eye of Sauron?

the NASA/ESA Jupiter-Europa-Ganymede mission launches in 2020. that sounds a bit interesting, but ten more years to see so? i hope the wait is worth it.

I have mild astrophobia.

Thinking about getting sucked up into the void and hurtling helplessly into space gives me the willies.

That's all I wanted to say. Sometimes even looking at telescope images makes me squeamish.

Also, Goatse = the real Eye of Sauron.

This is the mindblowing Pale Blue Dot speech I was talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnFMrNdj1yY

If you have astrophobia then do you have agoraphobia as well?

I can't say I have any particular fear about the possibility of being in space. I process so little of my surroundings on earth itself that I don't think I could even fairly comprehend space if I was out in it.

Also I'd probably be dead so I guess it's a moot point.

the "sensation" I get from imagining *theoretically* floating in space is similar to the feeling I get leaning over railings from extreme heights... if that explains anything... not that it's really the perfect explanation to begin with.

ok.

The universe is one hostile bitch.

That was cool.

Also holy fuck @ Formalhaut. What's even going on there?!

I still need to visit the Barringer Crater that's located a couple hundred miles from my city. The large crater was formed from a bollide that crashed down about fifty something thousand years ago. The metoer wasn't large enough to make any large scale catastrophe outside of the general vicinity but obviously had that thing landed today, Phoenix would be pretty much vaporized.

Space is just nuts. I mean, how big is the Universe? If you think the Universe as having any kind of wall or barrier, what's on the other side? Trying to imagine that kind of infinity is just plain scary! Also, I don't buy that time began when the Universe was born. There must have been something before then, so that means that this thing has been here forever and will never end!

Shit, I need some Hawkwind!!!

Time is defined as the space between two events. If there is no universe, there is no space for any event of any kind to take place. So yeah, time didn't exist before the universe did.

Space really is too huge a concept for the human mind to grasp.

I try to meditate once a day, and when I do I usually think about the mystery, beauty, and fierceness of the Universe. Although I do not know a ton about space, I am always interested in it and I'm curious about space exploration.

We can always dream, can't we?

We all agree that it's impossible to find a person who doesn't agree that space is fucking massive, right? Of course, but just how massive is a good question. Knowing that it's only a few dozen light years to our nearest star really isn't a comprehensible distance to most people, let alone the millions of light years spanning between the Milky Way and Andromeda.

The following link is a great, comprehensible, interactive model showing just how large the universe actually is. That it's on newgrounds shouldn't be a turn off, because this is something really worth checking out: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347

My favorite aspect about space is how immense it really is. I spent hours looking at this the first time it was released, becoming truly immersed in the scope of it.

I think this kinda fits, but with a twist...

Imagine a human body travelling, without the aid of a vehicle, supersonic speeds in 35 seconds. Felix Baumgartner is going to attempt it this year via a skydive from the edge of space, 120,000 feet above earth. Assuming he survives, this would show that astronauts might achieve the same if they ever need to escape from a spacecraft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6jGNhNfc08

Pushing the boundaries has defined my life. My best goes out to Felix.


Challenges:

-Minus 140 degrees Fahrenheit

-Extreme lack of O2

-Ebullism

-Dehydration, disorientation, vacuum, radiation

Man that's creepy. The Horsehead Nebula I also find to be really, really scary. Just thinking about not only how far that is, but how immensely large and eerie it lies out in the middle of nowhere.