# Did You Know  -  Share Interesting Facts About Our Universe...



## SmoothSeas

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## SmoothSeas

Well, when creating this thread, I intended to post this at the top  -  so, here goes...





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## RadishRose

I did not know!
There goes the price of gold...

Maybe Neil can help us get our earth back


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## SmoothSeas

RadishRose said:


> Maybe Neil can help us get our earth back



He's a fellow empath, with a brilliant mind.  I admire him a lot...


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## Ladybj

Energy is neither created nor destroyed...only converted from one form of energy to another.


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## feywon

SmoothSeas said:


> Well, when creating this thread, I intended to post this at the top  -  so, here goes...
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 185814
> 
> ​


Actually i did, family full of science geeks.

And BTW, Neil DeGrasse Tyson is one my favorite living scientists, Michio Kaku is another and Brian Cox from the UK.  A lot of my YouTube viewing is watching clips of them explaining, or asking thought provoking questions. Have watched a good bit of NDT's 'Star Talk' series as well as his update of Cosmos (originally done by Carl Sagan).


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## Alligatorob

Neil maybe right, but the operative word is "if".  I don't think we  have the power to do either...

Interesting statistics!  Too bad its all so far away...


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## feywon

Alligatorob said:


> Neil maybe right, but the operative word is "if".  I don't think we  have the power to do either...
> 
> Interesting statistics!  Too bad its all so far away...


Yeah and it may be part of motivation for the billionaires getting into space.  The mining company premise from Sci-Fi movies could become a reality.  Also part of the premise from  Korean film "Space Sweepers"  where salvaging space debris is a legit way to earn a living.  They're logical extrapolations of of motivators like greed and just staying alive are, but will only come to pass if we survive long enough as a species.


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## Dancing_Queen

feywon said:


> Actually i did, family full of science geeks.
> 
> And BTW, Neil DeGrasse Tyson is one my favorite living scientists, Michio Kaku is another and Brian Cox from the UK.  A lot of my YouTube viewing is watching clips of them explaining, or asking thought provoking questions. Have watched a good bit of NDT's 'Star Talk' series as well as his update of Cosmos (originally done by Carl Sagan).


I've been binging on Neil DeGrasse Tyson videos from way back.  I've also been watching the third iteration of Cosmos (okay. so I'm a bit late).  I was in a Zoom talk with Michio Kaku and am now reading one of his books.  I, too, am a science geek.


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## Dancing_Queen

Alligatorob said:


> Neil maybe right, but the operative word is "if".  I don't think we  have the power to do either...
> 
> Interesting statistics!  Too bad its all so far away...


We have the power to save the Earth; we just don't have the will.  Pretty soon, though, we won't have the power, either.


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## Alligatorob

Dancing_Queen said:


> We have the power to save the Earth; we just don't have the will.


Maybe, but I see a couple of probably insurmountable problems.  I am sure I missed a bunch...

First we would have to agree on what "saving the Earth" means and what should be done.  I don't see that happening, doubt we could get agreement on that here on this forum, let along worldwide.
Second, even if we could somehow get that agreement on what should be done I don't see us being able to convince enough people to do it for it to work.  Again, just think about the people of this forum and multiply by about a billion!
So I am thinking the best strategy may just be to understand what's happening and try to figure out how to best live with and through it.  Would not need so much agreement to do that.  

However if someone appears to have solutions I've missed I am open to listening.  Just don't want it to get in the way of my "plan B".


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## Shero

Did you know? If two pieces of the same type of metal touch in space, they will bond and be permanently stuck together. This is called cold welding.

Did you also know the Apollo astronauts footprints will stay there for about 100 million years. This is beause the moon does not have atmosphere and so no wind or water to move it.


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## feywon

Dancing_Queen said:


> I've been binging on Neil DeGrasse Tyson videos from way back.  I've also been watching the third iteration of Cosmos (okay. so I'm a bit late).  I was in a Zoom talk with Michio Kaku and am now reading one of his books.  I, too, am a science geek.


Does not surprise me in the slightest.


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## Granny B.

Launched in 1977, "the Voyager 1 spacecraft, is on an interstellar mission. It is traveling away from the Sun at a rate of 17.3 km/s. If Voyager were to travel to Proxima Centauri [our sun's closest neighbor], at this rate, it would take over 73,000 years to arrive. If we could travel at the speed of light, an impossibility due to Special Relativity, it would still take 4.22 years to arrive!

"According to Special Relativity the mass of an object increases as its speed increases, and approaches infinity as the object's speed approaches the speed of light. This means that it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate an object to the speed of light." - NASA

No warp speed for us for a long while, unfortunately.


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## Irwin

Granny B. said:


> Launched in 1977, "the Voyager 1 spacecraft, is on an interstellar mission. It is traveling away from the Sun at a rate of 17.3 km/s. If Voyager were to travel to Proxima Centauri [our sun's closest neighbor], at this rate, it would take over 73,000 years to arrive. If we could travel at the speed of light, an impossibility due to Special Relativity, it would still take 4.22 years to arrive!
> 
> "According to Special Relativity the mass of an object increases as its speed increases, and approaches infinity as the object's speed approaches the speed of light. This means that it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate an object to the speed of light." - NASA
> 
> No warp speed for us for a long while, unfortunately.


We'd need to take a shortcut through a wormhole.


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## Alligatorob

Granny B. said:


> Launched in 1977, "the Voyager 1 spacecraft, is on an interstellar mission. It is traveling away from the Sun at a rate of 17.3 km/s. If Voyager were to travel to Proxima Centauri [our sun's closest neighbor], at this rate, it would take over 73,000 years to arrive


Isn't Voyager going to get picked up by the Enterprise way before that?


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## Dancing_Queen

Alligatorob said:


> Maybe, but I see a couple of probably insurmountable problems.  I am sure I missed a bunch...
> 
> First we would have to agree on what "saving the Earth" means and what should be done.  I don't see that happening, doubt we could get agreement on that here on this forum, let along worldwide.
> Second, even if we could somehow get that agreement on what should be done I don't see us being able to convince enough people to do it for it to work.  Again, just think about the people of this forum and multiply by about a billion!
> So I am thinking the best strategy may just be to understand what's happening and try to figure out how to best live with and through it.  Would not need so much agreement to do that.
> 
> However if someone appears to have solutions I've missed I am open to listening.  Just don't want it to get in the way of my "plan B".


I can't speak to your first point, Rob.  As for your second, that's what I was talking about -- the will to do what's necessary.  Even if we could get agreement on what needs to be done, the will to do it since whatever will be costly, difficult, and inconvenient.


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## cdestroyer

the farthest we have been able to see in the universe so far is 13 billion light years. since light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second that distance is a very very very very long long ways away,,,,and yet it is not the other side of the universe,,,, YET!


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## Alligatorob

cdestroyer said:


> not the other side of the universe,,,, YET!


Let me know when it comes into view, I'd like to see it!


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## SmoothSeas

Never really considered this before.  A possibility that merits further research...


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## Dancing_Queen

cdestroyer said:


> the farthest we have been able to see in the universe so far is 13 billion light years. since light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second that distance is a very very very very long long ways away,,,,and yet it is not the other side of the universe,,,, YET!


With the new gravity telescope (LISA) or its next iteration, we might be able to see right back to the Big Bang or maybe to just about 3 trillionths of a second afterward.


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## fmdog44

Several countries have plans to mine asteroids for the elements.


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## fmdog44

SmoothSeas said:


> Never really considered this before.  A possibility that merits further research...
> 
> 
> View attachment 186043​


The theory that the Big Bang was the beginning has been challenged since it started. The idea is it explodes, expands and contracts to the point of nothing then the whole thing starts over. What has thrown a wrench in to this theory is the discovery the universe is expanding and no one knows why so they invented the term "dark energy". The further away the bodies are the faster the expansion is. Now the thinking is it will expand to the point where we will not see a single star in the sky some day.


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## Dancing_Queen

fmdog44 said:


> The theory that the Big Bang was the beginning has been challenged since it started. The idea is it explodes, expands and contracts to the point of nothing then the whole thing starts over. What has thrown a wrench in to this theory is the discovery the universe is expanding and no one knows why so they invented the term "dark energy". The further away the bodies are the faster the expansion is. Now the thinking is it will expand to the point where we will not see a single star in the sky some day.


There's dark energy and dark matter which together make up about 96% of the universe.  My pet "theory" (I got it from nowhere) is that there have been an infinite number of universes and what we can't "see" is the remnants of them.  Since their physics could have been quite different from ours, we can't act on them.

And then there's string theory and the multiverse...


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## Nathan

feywon said:


> Actually i did, family full of science geeks.
> 
> And BTW, Neil DeGrasse Tyson is one my favorite living scientists, Michio Kaku is another and Brian Cox from the UK.  A lot of my YouTube viewing is watching clips of them explaining, or asking thought provoking questions. Have watched a good bit of NDT's 'Star Talk' series as well as his update of Cosmos (originally done by Carl Sagan).


I love those guys!   However, I do believe that theoretical physicists drink way too much, on their lunch hour.   I mean, who the hell came up with String Theory???   Yea, somebody's smokin' _something_!


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## Granny B.

fmdog44 said:


> The idea is it explodes, expands and contracts to the point of nothing then the whole thing starts over.


Yes, I have heard this theory too. It would explain how the universe has existed for an infinite amount of time, like a rubber band expanding/contracting over and over. I can comprehend the idea of the "big bang," but what is the trigger that makes it start contracting?


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## Shero

Nathan said:


> I love those guys!   However, I do believe that theoretical physicists drink way too much, on their lunch hour.   I mean, who the hell came up with String Theory???   Yea, somebody's smokin' _something_!


Hey there Nathan, I believe the string theory.


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## feywon

Nathan said:


> I love those guys!   However, I do believe that theoretical physicists drink way too much, on their lunch hour.   I mean, who the hell came up with String Theory???   Yea, somebody's smokin' _something_!


Next time I'm on my desktop, probably in the morning, i'll find the video of NDT talking about how the new theory that we're actually living in a 'simulation' had him a bit concerned, because he couldn't disprove it conclusively, until he found a way to see the odds of it statistically lower/smaller.  

That comedian friend of his that is often on Star Talk with him is in it and even asrtutely hypothesized that if we were in simulation that would be a good reason for the speed limit of nothing can travel faster than light.  Gives the programmer(s) time to add stuff.  My DD got a big kick out of that-- she has several Sims packs and plays both Star Trek and survivalist games. Said he had a point.


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## Nathan

Shero said:


> Hey there Nathan, I believe the string theory.


Thanks, that was a good explanation.


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## feywon

@Nathan and anyone else interested.
At about 1:40 is where Chuck Nice, mentions being in a simulation could be why no FTL travel.  NDT's reaction is priceless.


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## Nathan

feywon said:


> @Nathan and anyone else interested.


 
Neil's view sounds a lot like the basic premise if the movie "The Matrix", which was quite a theoretical eyeopener.


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## cdestroyer

I dunno what all is called 'ftl' faster than light does not mean going faster than the speed of light, but more likely faster than light can go,,,,i.e. what is referred to as a 'jump' or you drop out of normal space into subspace,,,einstein noted it was like bending space until the two points start and end were very close together than you jumped the space inbetween.like the movie dune..


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## feywon

cdestroyer said:


> I dunno what all is called 'ftl' faster than light does not mean going faster than the speed of light, but more likely faster than light can go,,,,i.e. what is referred to as a 'jump' or you drop out of normal space into subspace,,,einstein noted it was like bending space until the two points start and end were very close together than you jumped the space inbetween.like the movie dune..


That's the theory--that it might be possible via 'wormholes', but scientists have yet to solve the problem of  finding and safely traveling thru a wormhole.  Some think they are somehow connected to Black Holes, but everything they know about Black Holes currently says anything that moves into the hole, beyond the 'event horizon' would be reduced to atoms with no coherence.   Doubt we'll live long e enough heck i'm not even sure 'terran civilization' as we know it will survive long enough for there to be calls for volunteers to test the prototypes for attempting such travel.


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## Dancing_Queen

Nathan said:


> I love those guys!   However, I do believe that theoretical physicists drink way too much, on their lunch hour.   I mean, who the hell came up with String Theory???   Yea, somebody's smokin' _something_!


But the math bears it out.  So, whether it's the truth of reality or not, it definitely needs consideration.

And what of Relativity?  And Quantum Mechanics?  They're about as way out as you can get -- right along with String Theory.


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## cdestroyer

to date einstein has never been proven wrong, but the wording of words is what might be keeping us earth bound.,..
http://www.differencebetween.net/sc...en-general-relativity-and-special-relativity/


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## SmoothSeas




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## Shero

When you look at stars in the sky, you're actually looking back in time. Also did you know:
Light takes so long to reach Earth that by the time we see the light from the stars, years have passed. The exact time depends on how far away the star is.


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## feywon

Shero said:


> When you look at stars in the sky, you're actually looking back in time. Also did you know:
> Light takes so long to reach Earth that by the time we see the light from the stars, years have passed. The exact time depends on how far away the star is.


Yes, indeed,  by the time we see a nova or supernova, the star may have long since  become a White Dwarf, a Black Dwarf, a Neutron Star or a Black Hole depending on it's initial mass.  Personally i don't want to be close enough to see the stars' changing in real time, not in the flesh anyway.


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## SmoothSeas

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## SmoothSeas

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## RadishRose




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## SmoothSeas

Just finished playing it...

Hot damn, @RadishRose  -  talk about taking your eyes and ears out to lunch  -  that was positively impactful...


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## Shero

Oh yes Radish Rose, that was angelic. I love it


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## RadishRose

I'm so happy you both liked it! I'm Jelly every time I watch it myself.


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## SmoothSeas

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## Shero

Almost all galaxies in the universe have their own black hole at the center. Scientists have made various theories in an effort to explain a black hole's origin, operation, and occurrence.

However, it was not until 2019 that a black hole was successfully photographed. It is challenging to takes photos of a black hole because they consume light and are a bit shy to the telescopes.

Scientists used a radio astronomy technique to capture the outline of the black hole, which is situated in the center of the M87 galaxy with a mass of 6.5 billion times of the sun. Approximately, the black hole is 3 million times the size of the Earth.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2019/4/19/how-scientists-captured-the-first-image-of-a-black-hole/
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## SmoothSeas

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## RadishRose

SmoothSeas said:


> View attachment 187950​


      
OMG and here I was, feeling superior to the ants!


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## Lewkat

Shero said:


> Hey there Nathan, I believe the string theory.


Good illustration, but it is all magnetic fields instead of filaments made of whatever.


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## SmoothSeas

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## SmoothSeas

This is somehow humbling...




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## SmoothSeas

I didn't realize this, did you...?


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## RadishRose




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