I've been reading how scientists calculate distances to the stars and galaxies. It is hard to give an accurate distance, one of the reasons is the universe is expanding, not only expanding but accelerating, and they aren't sure why. One theory is everything is drawn toward the Great Attractor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Attractor

These galaxies are all redshifted, in accordance with the Hubble Flow, indicating that they are receding relative to us and to each other, but the variations in their redshift are sufficient to reveal the existence of the anomaly.

I don't think you understood that. The great attractor can't be the reason the universe expands because it attracts things.

Universe expanding = increasing entropy

Things being drawn to one point = decreasing entropy

deviation from uniform expansion of the universe

"It really is that simple. If we want to travel into the future, we just need to go fast. Really fast. And I think the only way we're ever likely to do that is by going into space. The fastest manned vehicle in history was Apollo 10. It reached 25,000mph. But to travel in time we'll have to go more than 2,000 times faster. And to do that we'd need a much bigger ship, a truly enormous machine. The ship would have to be big enough to carry a huge amount of fuel, enough to accelerate it to nearly the speed of light. Getting to just beneath the cosmic speed limit would require six whole years at full power.

"The initial acceleration would be gentle because the ship would be so big and heavy. But gradually it would pick up speed and soon would be covering massive distances. In one week it would have reached the outer planets. After two years it would reach half-light speed and be far outside our solar system. Two years later it would be travelling at 90 per cent of the speed of light. Around 30 trillion miles away from Earth, and four years after launch, the ship would begin to travel in time. For every hour of time on the ship, two would pass on Earth. A similar situation to the spaceship that orbited the massive black hole. After another two years of full thrust the ship would reach its top speed, 99 per cent of the speed of light. "At this speed, a single day on board is a whole year of Earth time. Our ship would be truly flying into the future.

"The slowing of time has another benefit. It means we could, in theory, travel extraordinary distances within one lifetime. A trip to the edge of the galaxy would take just 80 years. But the real wonder of our journey is that it reveals just how strange the universe is. It's a universe where time runs at different rates in different places. Where tiny wormholes exist all around us. And where, ultimately, we might use our understanding of physics to become true voyagers through the fourth dimension."

I'm surprised there hasn't been any talk of billionaire funded manned missions to Mars in here.

Is anyone familiar with Jeff Talman's instillation/cd Nature of the Night Sky? He and an astrophysicist produced an ambient record that is literally the music of the stars: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/13/139600689/sounds-of-stars-fall-in-a-bavarian-forest.

It would be much better if they'd shut up so you could actually listen to the damn thing though.

Major news:

Voyager craft exits the Solar System
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21866532

Major news:

Voyager craft exits the Solar System
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21866532

Well, now we wait for V'Ger to re-enter our solar system.

In essence, this in a sense says that the Universe is knowable and is playing fair with scientists

The Huge-LQG was discovered in January 2013

The Huge-LQG is three times longer than, and twice as wide as is predicted possible according to these current models, and so challenges our understanding of the universe on large scales

Chinese NASA worker is denounced by congressman as a "security risk", fired, arrested by FBI.

And I thought the cold war was over.

Chinese NASA worker is denounced by congressman as a "security risk", fired, arrested by FBI.

And I thought the cold war was over.