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Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet

nytimes.com

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Re: Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet

#51

Post by jjav »

owlninja wrote: post #7

I love stories like this. A subtle reminder how inconsequential our actions are on this planet in the grand, unplanned scheme. I look forward to reading HN with my breakfast each morning then going to a job that helps me raise a family and have fun on the weekends. I read stories of war, corruption, sadistic leaders, and great suffering. I've learned to appreciate the joys of life and have come to terms that we are n…

> A subtle reminder how inconsequential our actions are on this planet in the grand, unplanned scheme.

I don't find that to be useful at all.

Yes of course, all the suffering on Earth is nothing but a footnote in 0.000000001 font size as far as the universe is concerned.

But that's irrelevant. We live on Earth, so what happens here is actually 100% of what matters. Everything else is inconsequential.

Re: Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet

#52

Post by joquarky »

WalterBright wrote: post #36
stouset wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose zero is a pretty significant number. Without new physics that isn’t even remotely visible on the horizon and that utterly contradicts most of what we believe to be true, this isn’t going to happen. Robotic AI probes sent to other star systems to send back telemetry? Sure, fine. Flesh bags sent to self-replicate on terraformed worlds out in the stars? Not a whisper of a microscopic chance.

If you can sent probes to other star systems, you can include with it information of the DNA of life forms and a device to create terran life.

It takes far more than DNA to recreate a human.

Re: Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet

#53

Post by Cider9986 »

tartoran wrote: post #37
owlninja wrote: post #7

I love stories like this. A subtle reminder how inconsequential our actions are on this planet in the grand, unplanned scheme. I look forward to reading HN with my breakfast each morning then going to a job that helps me raise a family and have fun on the weekends. I read stories of war, corruption, sadistic leaders, and great suffering. I've learned to appreciate the joys of life and have come to terms that we are n…

Things can be meaningless on a cosmic timescale and still matter a great deal on a human one. Most of us will never influence the universe, but we'll influence our families, friends, coworkers and even future generations, that's enough...

I'm reminded of:

What It’s Like Being Married to Neil deGrasse Tyson - Key & Peele

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyZSBqQ813c

Re: Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet

#55

Post by robocat »

pdonis wrote: post #25
jmyeet wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the first gravitational wave detections by LIGO was I think the merger of two black holes or maybe a black hole and a neutron star. It was over a billion light years away I think but was so energetic that it conveted approximately 5 Solar masses into energy in about one second . That's ~10^48 Joules. In 1 second that is ~10^48 Watts. For comparison, the Milky Way has an estimate of 5x10^36 Watts so we're talki…

> If you think about it, they must have a lot of protons to generate a field so strong Not necessarily. Neutrons have a magnetic moment. As I understand it, there is a magnetohydrodynamic model of how a magnetar's field gets generated, which would require protons, but it's not the only model and we don't have enough data to be able to rule out other models.

Aside: Carbon-13 has one more neutron than Carbon-12, so the unpaired neutron gives it a magnetic moment which is what is used for C13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-13_nuclear_magnetic_res...

Re: Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet

#56

Post by jojogeo »

owlninja wrote: post #7

I love stories like this. A subtle reminder how inconsequential our actions are on this planet in the grand, unplanned scheme. I look forward to reading HN with my breakfast each morning then going to a job that helps me raise a family and have fun on the weekends. I read stories of war, corruption, sadistic leaders, and great suffering. I've learned to appreciate the joys of life and have come to terms that we are n…

I'm not a religious person but this seems relevant to your comment;

> So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry.

As someone with autism and ADHD; I have spent my life trying to understand better ways to do things, optimisations, doing things "right" or "better" or "faster", and trying to come to terms with others who don't really give a shit about any of it.

The conclusion I arrived at is that the snapshot of time I get in this form is best spent enjoying what this form has to offer, nothing more.

- My sausage'y shaped fingers can't manipulate time or gravity; but they can tickle my children and make them laugh.

- My heart can't fix anything; but it can help me to understand others suffering and guide my actions.

- My eyes can't see the whole electromagnetic spectrum; but they can appreciate a beautiful vista and fill me with wonder.

When TFA mentions that a star just ate a planet, I remember just how small and unimportant I am outside a tiny speck of the world; and rejoice that I'm not responsible for anything super important outside that little speck. \o/

Re: Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet

#58

Post by drannex »

joquarky wrote: post #52
WalterBright wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can sent probes to other star systems, you can include with it information of the DNA of life forms and a device to create terran life.

It takes far more than DNA to recreate a human.

important part: "and a device to create terran life".

@WalterBright, I've always preferred the idea that to explore the stars the only chance we have at doing so is by bio-growing humans (cloned?), and somehow uploading and downloading a current humans consciousness into the form.

basically 'seeding the universe' since we would just start sending little seeds of human life everywhere. :-)

Re: Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet

#59

Post by [deleted] »

dylan604 wrote: post #28
bellowsgulch wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A subtle reminder how inconsequential our actions are on this planet in the grand, unplanned scheme. I don't like that our culture has developed statements like this. Every single action you make on planet Earth is more consequential and impactful than the countless parsecs of worthless unobtainable space dust that astrophysicists and science promoters like to glaze over. Space is nothing compared to the unfathomab…

You can think they are old and pointless, but that's you just brushing off the fact that the universe is much much older than however old you think these ideas are. The entirety of the human species from its beginning to its eventual ending is merely a blip of time for the universe. You can argue that makes it that much more special, but so what? To the universe, there very well could have been numerous other special…

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