Awesome Hubble Telescope Photo's

[Gustavo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/8041583.stm

 

[KeefG]

They are pretty impressive it has to be said, I bet i can do better with my 10mega pixel digi cam and my telescope from argos though.....ok, maybe not

On the subject of space and stuff....who believes there is alternative life to us?

I'm a great believer that out there, somewhere, there is another race of folk, anyone who believes that we're alone is very naive IMHO.

 

[CarpeDiem]

there is another race of folk

Tiger Woods ???

 

[Gustavo]

I'd love it if there was 'alien'life out there, but if there was ET's, UFO's etc then surely there would be some solid evidence of there existence. All we've got is a few dodgy film clips, loads of fake photo's, crazy Americans that have been abducted, but nothing to prove otherwise.

It's the same for Time Travel, it's impossible. Otherwise it would already have happened and we would have been visited by people from the future.

 

[KeefG]

No no no no no....think of the bigger picture fella:

This is the Andromeda galaxy which is the closest galaxy to us (its still 2.5 million light years away) and consists of approx 1 trillion stars, each of which is like our Sun, each star will have its own group of planets orbitting it....now you tell me that there isnt life on just one of these planets out of a possibly hundreds of trillions!!

 

[Gustavo]

OK I do agree with that. There must surely be another planet like ours, somewhere out there far far away with similar conditions for life like we have on Earth. I just don't think we'll ever witness, acknowledge, or learn of it.

But I would like to think that billions of light years away, there's another GM Forum with Gustavo playing off scratch

 

[KeefG]

lol

we'll never, ever, ever know!!

The furthest space probe the septic tanks have ever got images from got 14 light hours away from Earth....and it took 30 years to get there!

 

[AndrewG]

Even in our own galaxy - there are 100 billion stars (all the ones you see when you look up add up to about 9,000 of them), a large proportion of these 100 billion stars likely have planetary systems - we've only discovered a couple of hundred or so, so far - but thats just because they are bleddy hard to see, and we've only just started! The distances involved also preclude space travel in the normal sense - our normal satellite speeds are about 20 km per second!, but even at that - we'd only reach our nearest stellar neighbour at 4.3 light years in 65,000 years, or 3,000 generations!

Oh, and there are probably a trillion or so GALAXIES out there too - each with millions to trillions of stars.

Life will be out there, but it won't be anything like us.

How cool that I join a golf forum, and someone posts about astronomy, my second favourite thing

 

[KeefG]

It fascinates me to be honest, its not something i'm hugely into but I sit here and get lost in thoughts about it all!!

Theres definitely life out there, and I would say it is like ours....like Gustavo, I hope there is a KeefG somewhere who is that planets Tiger Woods

 

[CarpeDiem]

Its so interesting, if I didn't have a lot of work to be doing I would be lost in my thoughts wondering how big space is etc. It would be nice to know all the answers, or would it? Would we really want to know how powerful space is? Do we want to know that we're only 30 light years awat from total destruction?

 

[KeefG]

Do we want to know that we're only 30 light years awat from total destruction?

Its 2.5 billion years allegedly....that is roughly when Andromeda is going to crash into the Milky Way

Glad I wont be around to see it, its one thing seeing a car crash into you, let alone an entire galaxy lol

 

[AndrewG]

Do we want to know that we're only 30 light years awat from total destruction?

Its 2.5 billion years allegedly....that is roughly when Andromeda is going to crash into the Milky Way

Glad I wont be around to see it, its one thing seeing a car crash into you, let alone an entire galaxy lol

Apparently, the collision won't directly affect us too much, as the 'clouds' of stars are so diffuse, that direct collisions will be few and far between. Our night sky will change obviously, as will the motions of stars due to gravitational interaction. More pressing, is the fact that our Sun will swell up into a red giant in 5 billion years, and scorch the planet to a cinder... We don't want to be around for that. Though anything that'll dry out some of the wetter parts of my course will be a blessing.

 

[CarpeDiem]

Though anything that'll dry out some of the wetter parts of my course will be a blessing.

It may be a little drier than you'll like though, a red gaint is a touch on the hot side.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I though the last picture looked quite freaky - like a giant eye. Excellent pictures but the whole life and the universe thing is wa too big for my little head

 

[johng]

How cool that I join a golf forum, and someone posts about astronomy, my second favourite thing

[/QUOTE]

OK then Andrew, if you'd be so kind,,,,

can you please explain to me - in basic terms if possible , where Earth sits within the Milky way, galaxy, universe etc etc.????

I understand the basics but can't quite get my head around the whole glaxy, milky way, star system bit

and as a completely trivial point, where does all of Star Trek take place? The whole universe or just the milky way?

my head hurts

Thanks,
John.

 

[Sneds]

How cool that I join a golf forum, and someone posts about astronomy, my second favourite thing

OK then Andrew, if you'd be so kind,,,,

can you please explain to me - in basic terms if possible , where Earth sits within the Milky way, galaxy, universe etc etc.????

I understand the basics but can't quite get my head around the whole glaxy, milky way, star system bit

and as a completely trivial point, where does all of Star Trek take place? The whole universe or just the milky way?

my head hurts

Thanks,
John.

[/QUOTE]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071120231145AAzvgN1

 

[johng]

Thanks Sneds.


Now then, where did Star Wars take place???

 

[Sneds]

Thanks Sneds.


Now then, where did Star Wars take place???

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080213215849AAgY51V

 

[AndrewG]

How cool that I join a golf forum, and someone posts about astronomy, my second favourite thing

OK then Andrew, if you'd be so kind,,,,

can you please explain to me - in basic terms if possible , where Earth sits within the Milky way, galaxy, universe etc etc.????

Thats probably far better to post than an explanation from me!

But I should stress that our sun would be smaller than 1 pixel on that image. The milky way is the name for the bright river of stars you see on a very dark night, in a very dark location, and is the effect of looking 'through' the galaxy towards its centre, and so through a much larger concentration of stars. There are probably trillions of galaxies throughout the universe.

I understand the basics but can't quite get my head around the whole glaxy, milky way, star system bit
and as a completely trivial point, where does all of Star Trek take place? The whole universe or just the milky way?

I'm not 100% sure actually. If their 'warp' speed is sub-light speed, then it'll be our near neighrbourhood only - look at what 10,000 light years is on that picture!

If they can travel faster than light, then all bets are off, and they can possibly go to any galaxy? Not a massive Trekkie, so I couldn't really tell you.

my head hurts

I had to calculate what the variation in frequency of a 1421 MHz signal would be from a moon, orbiting a planet, orbiting a star, 30 light years would be, due to the respective speeds of orbit of each body (including Earth) around its respective parent body. I have no head...

BTW, I love Southerdown, beautiful place. I drive the missus and my daughter down there regularly in the summer, via Ogmore. (I'm in Neath)

Thanks,
John.

[/QUOTE]

 

[johng]

I had to calculate what the variation in frequency of a 1421 MHz signal would be from a moon, orbiting a planet, orbiting a star, 30 light years would be, due to the respective speeds of orbit of each body (including Earth) around its respective parent body. I have no head... I didn't understand any of that I'm afraid - different language I assume ?? Good luck with it all though

BTW, I love Southerdown, beautiful place. I drive the missus and my daughter down there regularly in the summer, via Ogmore. (I'm in Neath)

Anytime you fancy a game let me know. £20 for a guest I believe at the moment.

Ta. (i think?)
John.