In this current age of rampant division and strife, this is a welcome message and thoughtful perspective. It stands in stark contrast to the never-ending, mindless garbage that is spewed by the pols, the media and it's parade of breathtakingly moronic and misguided talking heads, and social media, as well.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F2NeH_-f34


Good and hopeful thoughts and wishes to all for 2020!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sigmanic,

Wow. Thank you. Kind of puts it all in perspective doesn’t it.

"Momentary master of a fraction, of a dot".

The space and scale argument was the main point, and our place in it all. But what impacts me the most is the temporality of everything. That's the truth that people so often fail to grasp.

Heard the Carl Sagan speech live, thought it was dorky then.

Starting to make better sense now, though he was still a dork when he said it.

Nice video. Already stole a quote for my sig line.

Thank you.

Distance on the galactic scale is more than most people can wrap their head around. A star 65 million light years away appears to our eye to be in the present but is in actuality how it appears 65 million years ago because of the amount of time the light hitting our eyes took to get here. An alien species that could make out our tiny star at the same distance would be seeing its light at the time the dinosaurs were gasping their last breaths.

Stars we see in the night sky could have died millions of years ago. We really are just a tiny little dot in a vast void.

Gives you a different perspective, looking back at your world from 4 billion miles out....

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
"Momentary master of a fraction, of a dot".

The space and scale argument was the main point, and our place in it all. But what impacts me the most is the temporality of everything. That's the truth that people so often fail to grasp.

Yup, we're all just passing through.

how do we know that all the stars we see at night are nothing more then holes in a can so we can breath?

Remember, when you throw something away, that in reality there is no 'away'...........

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Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Heard the Carl Sagan speech live, thought it was dorky then.

Starting to make better sense now, though he was still a dork when he said it.

He may have been one of the great minds of the 20th century, but he creased me up whenever he said 'cose-mose'.

I always thought it fascinating how little of nature we can survive in without special gear. Go too high, no air, and a lot of radiation. Go too deep, like a cave, very little air. Too deep in water, get crushed.

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Originally posted by gearhounds:
Distance on the galactic scale is more than most people can wrap their head around. A star 65 million light years away appears to our eye to be in the present but is in actuality how it appears 65 million years ago because of the amount of time the light hitting our eyes took to get here. An alien species that could make out our tiny star at the same distance would be seeing its light at the time the dinosaurs were gasping their last breaths.

Stars we see in the night sky could have died millions of years ago. We really are just a tiny little dot in a vast void.

The vast void may not be as void as one might imagine. Vast yes, void no. I don't understand it really but when you read about mass and force particles and the unknowns of the content of interstellar space and that the math doesn't add up as it's curretly understood, the interstellar voids may not be very empty at all.

Yes, reminds me of RH's last line in Blade Runner..

It's all like tears washed away in the rain....

thanks... One day Humanity as a whole might just get it.

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Originally posted by wrightd:

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
Distance on the galactic scale is more than most people can wrap their head around. A star 65 million light years away appears to our eye to be in the present but is in actuality how it appears 65 million years ago because of the amount of time the light hitting our eyes took to get here. An alien species that could make out our tiny star at the same distance would be seeing its light at the time the dinosaurs were gasping their last breaths.

Stars we see in the night sky could have died millions of years ago. We really are just a tiny little dot in a vast void.

The vast void may not be as void as one might imagine. Vast yes, void no. I don't understand it really but when you read about mass and force particles and the unknowns of the content of interstellar space and that the math doesn't add up as it's curretly understood, the interstellar voids may not be very empty at all.

Oh the mass is out there; physics implies it has to be. But if one considers how much actual space is between individual items, from particles to rogue planets in interstellar space, you get an idea of how much of it appears empty. A small example is the asteroid belt- astronomers believe the average distance between objects is about 600,000 miles- about twice the distance to the moon. Not exactly how it appears in illustrations. Interstellar space is far more spread out. I suppose it depends on what one would consider a void.

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Originally posted by XLT:
how do we know that all the stars we see at night are nothing more then holes in a can so we can breath?

It's turtles all the way down.

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Originally posted by XLT:
how do we know that all the stars we see at night are nothing more then holes in a can so we can breath?

Everything you need to know about starts is succinctly summed up in that famous novel by James Matthew Barrie.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
Distance on the galactic scale is more than most people can wrap their head around. A star 65 million light years away appears to our eye to be in the present but is in actuality how it appears 65 million years ago because of the amount of time the light hitting our eyes took to get here. An alien species that could make out our tiny star at the same distance would be seeing its light at the time the dinosaurs were gasping their last breaths.

Stars we see in the night sky could have died millions of years ago. We really are just a tiny little dot in a vast void.

The vast void may not be as void as one might imagine. Vast yes, void no. I don't understand it really but when you read about mass and force particles and the unknowns of the content of interstellar space and that the math doesn't add up as it's curretly understood, the interstellar voids may not be very empty at all.

Oh the mass is out there; physics implies it has to be. But if one considers how much actual space is between individual items, from particles to rogue planets in interstellar space, you get an idea of how much of it appears empty. A small example is the asteroid belt- astronomers believe the average distance between objects is about 600,000 miles- about twice the distance to the moon. Not exactly how it appears in illustrations. Interstellar space is far more spread out. I suppose it depends on what one would consider a void.

Agreed. Even we humans are more empty space than anything else. Empty space on an atomic level is as equally staggering as it is in an outer space sense. My favorite example from a professor of mine:

Imagine a single Hydrogen atom. Our simplest Element on the Periodic Table. The single most abundant element in the known Universe. A key component in water, which is what we are primarily made of.

Good ole Hydrogen, with its nucleus, and one lone electron orbiting around it.

Now, imagine the nucleus is the size of a softball and the lone orbiting electron is the size of a baseball...

...and know that the softball and baseball would have to be about a mile and a half apart to accurately model the amount of empty space between everything, even at that level, even in a single Hydrogen atom.

Steel, Titanium, Diamonds, Water, Marble, Granite, the entire USS Nimitz, etc... mostly empty space. Just like space space.

It's wild to say the least.

I don't claim to know how it all started or where it will go, but the ride and views are fantastic.

quote:

Distance on the galactic scale is more than most people can wrap their head around. A star 65 million light years away appears to our eye to be in the present but is in actuality how it appears 65 million years ago because of the amount of time the light hitting our eyes took to get here.

Very true! And your example is only a tiny fraction of the scale. Newest estimates put the "observable universe" at around 93 billion light years, with the "actual" size being many, many times that, perhaps 251 times that amount. But, even if you use 93 billion, the time it would take for a two-way conversation using radio signals that travel at the speed of light would be 186 billion years. A little hard to comprehend. It's easier to think about who will win the Super Bowl or whether Jennifer Lopez might have a wardrobe malfunction at halftime.