Scale of the Universe (****ing cool)

[Reginald]

I've always wondered if you were riding on the original photons/particles emitted from the Big Bang, what would you be seeing?

If the circular universe theory is true, then it'll be your own back for a couple of moments, I assume. It messes with my head.

 

[Nomad]

Which brings up the fact that you're seeing yourself in third-person, but you can see yourself seeing yourself. And so on and so on.

 

[Raziaar]

and beyond that?

Cowboy Universe.

 

[Pulse]

Well, that was rather good. Funny how a simple representation like that can put a lot into perspective.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Nobody can't take a semi serious joke. bleh

You're right, we totally can.

I was looking at VY CANIS MAJORIS; thats one f*ck ass star

It scares the christ out of me that that star could fill more than half the distance between Pluto and the Sun in pure diameter. D:

 

[Destructo-Bot]

The atmosphere of Earth is 200,000 time denser than the gas of VY Canis Majoris. Despite its size, it's only about 40 Solar Masses. It's very likely that you could take a spacecraft right through much of VY Canis Majoris.

 

[the cow says moo]

The explanation given is that our universe is the surface of a 4D sphere (3 x space + 1 x time). As such, by moving in a straight line we are actually moving in a circle on the 4-sphere.

Unlikely. Our instruments may detect higher dimensions, but if there are any, they'd certainly be very shallow (~ Planck length). Otherwise particles from our world would move freely in that plane. We'd see particles (including photons) pop in and out of sight all the time.

Yeah, we actually only see in 2d. But we are able to comprehend 3d objects (having two eyes sure helps with that). It would seem that one can only see in a dimension that's lower than one is in. A 2d being could only see lines, a 1d being could only see a point. I probably should have changed that in my other post.

As for the particles popping out of this dimension, it's unlikely. We exist on a plane that is practically impossible to simply "pop" off of. Well, that we know of, at least. 4d objects, however, could freely move into our dimension, though, they would appear as a 3d object to us (we would see it as 2d).

If anyone is interested in this sort of thing, I would highly recommend the book Flatlands. Very interesting read and not too complicated. It's a pretty short book, yet chock full of ideas, and it forced me to stop and think plenty.

 

[ríomhaire]

Interesting. The wavelength of infrared is larger than red blood cells. Phobos and Demios are surprisingly small and misshapen (ie, not spherical).

 

[Bad^Hat]

Edit: ^ I was kind of surprised to see the variance of wavelengths is so radical, from a near-cellular (heh) level, right up to like 10 meters between AM radio waves. This probably isn't news to anyone else, but I practically slept through all my science classes so uhhh.

The atmosphere of Earth is 200,000 time denser than the gas of VY Canis Majoris. Despite its size, it's only about 40 Solar Masses. It's very likely that you could take a spacecraft right through much of VY Canis Majoris.

See, that just frightens me even more. Reading this kind of shit about space sets me off in the same way some people hate thinking about creepy deep ocean shit (which also occasionally gives me the willies). I just can't help thinking how lonely and desolate it'd be out there, in the vast nothingness, floating around with no hope of rescue. That's not to even mention the lack of oxygen or deadly cold, or whatever else is out there. That and black holes. Yikes.

Maybe (definitely) I'm just weird, but my mind has this habit of making me believe that just thinking about these places enough will cause me to somehow materialize in them, so I have to constantly blank them out, even though I'm well aware there's no logical reason to even consider it. :|

Paranoid? Me? Well I never.

 

[Tyguy]

Maybe (definitely) I'm just weird, but my mind has this habit of making me believe that just thinking about these places enough will cause me to somehow materialize in them, so I have to constantly blank them out, even though I'm well aware there's no logical reason to even consider it. :|

Paranoid? Me? Well I never.

Might be a form of OCD if it affects you like that. Just a thought.

For some reason I find thinking about this kind of stuff relaxing. There's so much unknown out there that you can sort of get lost in it and make up your own theories.

 

[Destructo-Bot]

I just find it awesome you could potentially pilot a craft right through part of a STAR. A star with a circumference the size of the orbit of Saturn. How badass is that? The universe ****ing rocks.

Neutron stars are cooler though. A star 2x more massive than Sol yet only 12km in radius. The star is composed of a neutron soup. An incredibly dense soup...

"this density is approximately equivalent to the mass of the entire human population compressed into the size of a sugar cube."

"One measure of such immense gravity is the fact that neutron stars have an escape velocity of around 100,000 km/s, about 33% of the speed of light. Matter falling onto the surface of a neutron star would be accelerated to tremendous speed by the star's gravity. The force of impact would likely destroy the object's component atoms, rendering all its matter identical, in most respects, to the rest of the star."

"A neutron star is so dense that one teaspoon (5 milliliters) of its material would have a mass over 50,000,000,000,000 kg. The resulting force of gravity is so strong that if an object were to fall from just one meter high it would only take one microsecond to hit the surface of the neutron star, and would do so at around 2000 kilometers per second, or 7.2 million kilometers per hour."