"If there's one thing I like more than space... it's more space" - Frank Sidebottom
How Big is Space?
51–60 of 95 posts
Re: How Big is Space?
#52This was pretty cool! My kudos to those who put this together. BM for sharing.
Re: How Big is Space?
#53This was pretty cool! My kudos to those who put this together. BM for sharing.
Re: How Big is Space?
#54Kinda depressing just how small we are and that we can't get around places to explore space without some groundbreaking invention that will transfer information from the atoms to another location instantly (something like spooky action except that after you are finished copying the atom data, the old copy must be deleted to prevent endless dopplegangers appearing) by appending some complex 3d position information (mo…
I just can't help but think that we'll reach a wall when it comes to exploring the real world. Even if we get to travel at the speed of light, we're still limited by it. In 20 years of light travel we'd only visit relatively close clusters. All the other stuff is thousands of light years away. Not to mention exploring other galaxies which are millions of light years away. Quality of life in the virtual world will per…
what if . we invent a way to not reach out, but however reduce the space, that is how einstein will think.
Re: How Big is Space?
#55"Space is big. Really 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, but that's just peanuts to space." Wanted to be the first :-)
I'm worried that as these 'space is really big' sites get better, someone will inadvertantly create a browser-based total perspective vortex and instantly annihilate the brain of anyone who visits.
The median Silicon Valley techie ego surpassed 1000 millizaphods several years ago. Many of the Bay Area locals are already immune.
Re: How Big is Space?
#56Re: How Big is Space?
#57No Oort cloud? :(
No, not even the scattered disc got in. On the other hand - since the Oort cloud is up to 100,000 AUs[1] away from the sun - it would have added a bit of scrolling at the end of the page.
[1] 100,000 AUs: ~150,000,000,000,000 kilometres (big space is big)
Re: How Big is Space?
#58It's only the solar system, but it's still a long walk to Pluto: http://www.jeffreybennett.com/model-solar-systems/colorado-s... Models like that get across the incredible amounts of space in space.
Cool. The largest solar system model is in Sweden[1], with Pluto being 300 km away from the Sun[2].
Re: How Big is Space?
#59I prefer the interactive solar system on Josh Worth's site. http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.h...
Seconded, but it appears to be down now. The great thing about that one is it treats the Moon as one pixel and doesn't change scale.
Re: How Big is Space?
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes photons do not experience time, it's all the same instant for them
So a photon can get anywhere it wants instantly to them?
This is a great article (for laypeople, it's not supposed to be too technical) that explains it and makes it easy to understand: http://zidbits.com/2011/04/why-cant-anything-go-faster-than-...
I'll quote the relevant bit, "Imagine for a moment that you are a happy little photon created by a star in another galaxy some 4 billion light years away. From my perspective here on Earth, it took you exactly 4 billion years to travel from that star till you reached my retina. From your perspective, one instant you were created and then the next, you are are bouncing off or being absorbed by my eyeball. You experienced no passage of time. Your birth and death happened instantaneously.
This is because time slows for you as your get closer to light speed, and at it, it completely stops. This is also another reason why nothing can go faster than light. It would be like slowing down a car to a stop, and then trying to go slower than completely stopped."