From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
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Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#2I still think Douglas Adams explained it best.
"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
In a strange way, I think it gets the point across better than a precise description like "one hundred billion galaxies" ever could.
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#3Makes intelligent life seem quite likely
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#4Based on my (limited) understanding of cosmology, this is only the number of galaxies in the observable Universe . The number of galaxies "outside" this region is effectively unknowable. Could someone who knows better clarify?
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#5Makes intelligent life seem quite likely
Perhaps, but the likelihood of a sufficiently advanced civilization who could travel through space/time to interact with us becomes much smaller when you consider our civilization as a whole is only a flash in the pan.
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#6Based on my (limited) understanding of cosmology, this is only the number of galaxies in the observable Universe . The number of galaxies "outside" this region is effectively unknowable. Could someone who knows better clarify?
I don't necessarily know any better, but I think that we can probably estimate the number of galaxies in the entire (observable and unobservable) universe given the assumptions that the composition of the universe is generally homogeneous and that the big bang theory is correct. If this is the case, we can calculate an approximate number of galaxies from the combination of observed galaxy density and the extrapolated size of the universe based on the time since the big bang.
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#7Makes intelligent life seem quite likely
I think life is quite likely, because as soon as it was possible for it to form on this planet, it did. However, it took several tries and mass extinctions before civilization arose. On the other hand, the are several varieties of intelligent life, such as dolphins, octopuses, and crows, so perhaps intelligence isn't rare, but the right combination of traits needed for civilization are. ( communication, tool-building, etc...)
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#8Can you imagine being there when these images were first compiled and revealed? I would have gaped in disbelief, and then wept. From a minuscule patch of nothingness, bottomless infinity has been glimpsed. It's unfathomable. And it's out there, right now, part of our existence. How awesome and thrilling.
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#9Makes intelligent life seem quite likely
Perhaps, but the likelihood of a sufficiently advanced civilization who could travel through space/time to interact with us becomes much smaller when you consider our civilization as a whole is only a flash in the pan.
Yes but technology does not progress linearly. So to us it may seem so impossible by methods we possess, but it may be closer than we think to travel throughout the universe.
So a flash in the pan may be moot depending on the right technology.
For example captain Jack sparrow trying to locate a ship in the ocean may seem like a huge task, and today it would be too if we use the same method back then. But if that ship had a GPS tracker on it completely changes the way we look for the ship.
We/or they just have to discover the right trick.
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps, but the likelihood of a sufficiently advanced civilization who could travel through space/time to interact with us becomes much smaller when you consider our civilization as a whole is only a flash in the pan.
Yes but technology does not progress linearly. So to us it may seem so impossible by methods we possess, but it may be closer than we think to travel throughout the universe. So a flash in the pan may be moot depending on the right technology. For example captain Jack sparrow trying to locate a ship in the ocean may seem like a huge task, and today it would be too if we use the same method back then. But if that ship…
I agree.
Imagine gathering the hundreds of people that worked on the Apollo missions and fitting them in the room that housed the project's main computers. They might all fit. Then tell them before most of them were dead they would be able to put all of those computers in their pocket.
Ok. Now imagine that we don't kill ourselves for the next thousand years. What are going to be able to do? What about ten thousand?
I'm going to state this, on behalf of all of humanity:
1) We're not alone. The universe is teeming with life much like this planet is.
2) What's technologically possible is bound only by the extent of our future imagination.
3) The planet will eventually be controlled by mild-mannered nerds like the ones reading HN. The internet planted the seed that will grow the tree whose fruits will destroy tyranny.
So it is written.