[Closed] Just wow-Universe content

My 9 year old has gone space mad over the last few weeks. I'm about to melt his brain with all that! Thanks for posting, great link!

Have a go on this then:

[url= http://scaleofuniverse.com/ ]Scale of the Universe[/url]

Good for kids too.

Now the question is where are all the aliens? 😆

Some say they don't exist others say our brain is too small to comprehend that possibility.

For the rigid minded we are the "universe" we are intelligent because there are no other possibility ...

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's, but that's just peanuts to space.

Now the question is where are all the aliens?

Is this like a really, really hard Where's Wally?

I love all this stuff. Kind of puts our little lives into perspective.

chvck - Member

Now the question is where are all the aliens?

Is this like a really, really hard Where's Wally?

What's your answer? Stop pussy footing with a question.

🙄

I sometimes hate that one climb on my regular local loop. In reality it's not that far at all really 😀

I sometimes hate that one climb on my regular local loop. In reality it's not that far at all really

Talking about the aliens?

Now the question is where are all the aliens?

I don't know where they are! A galaxy far, far away maybe...

Now the question is where are all the aliens?

Some say they don't exist others say our brain is too small to comprehend that possibility.

We're not invited to the party

I recently bought the [url= https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/star-walk-2-guide-to-sky-day/id892279069?mt=8 ]Star Walk 2[/url] app, as well as the satellite addons, for me iPhone.

Spent a pleasant, and mildly drunken, evening over the weekend checking out all the bits and bobs. As it works like a window onto the stars depending on where you point the phone.

[img] [/img]

Amazing how often we forget to look up and go whut?

...as well as down, of course.

...click to make biggerer.

[url= http://i.imgur.com/xZ6wztg.jp g" target="_blank">http://i.imgur.com/xZ6wztg.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nj48v/voyager-to-the-final-frontier ]BBC iPlayer - Voyager[/url]
Brilliant program, some truly mind boggling numbers

@maccruiskeen - thanks for that short, hadn't seen it before.

Now the question is where are all the aliens?

On their own planets, which are all a really really really really long way away.

molgrips - Member

Now the question is where are all the aliens?

On their own planets, which are all a really really really really long way away.

I bet they consider us parasite yes? 😀

Looking at the grand scheme of the universe we are insignificant.

Looking at the grand scheme of the universe we are insignificant.

Dazzling insight of the day.

I didn't know Uranus was so big.

Spin - Member

Looking at the grand scheme of the universe we are insignificant.

Dazzling insight of the day.

There there you learn something everyday so from now on please refer to mankind as nothing but parasite.

I think any aliens who find us would just sigh and move on quickly:

[img] ?itok=JXIpY0EF[/img]

I bet they consider us parasite yes?

Why would they?

Why wouldn't they be parasites too?

Why wouldn't they be just like us?

Where are the aliens?
Consider this photo:

[img] [/img]

The Hubble Ultra Deep-field image, a series of exposures taken of a tiny section of sky in Ursa Major. Apart from a couple of very bright stars, every thing in the photo is a galaxy, going back in time about thirteen billion years.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Ultra-Deep_Field
Just imagine how many galaxies fill the sky in every direction, and how chuffing far away they are, with how many hundreds of millions of stars in each galaxy, and how many possible planets.
It's the distance thing that's the issue here, not where are they.

'Where are all the aliens'
Dunno but I'd bet a weeks pay they'd dress in black loose clothing, wave guns about, yap on about some god or another & go around chopping peoples heads off.

molgrips - Member

I bet they consider us parasite yes?

Good questions.

Why would they?

Because they found us first so they can define mankind as they like.

Why wouldn't they be parasites too?

They might be themselves but then why would they consider themselves that way when the underdeveloped beings can only consuming themselves to death?

Why wouldn't they be just like us?

If they are like us then we are all doomed because we harvest the weak.

CountZero - Member

Where are the aliens?

Look the mirror ... there might be one there.

😆

Where are the aliens?

Is this like spot the ball? What do I win?

Ohh they're out there, pray VERY hard they never find you.

Uncle Fermi had [url= http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html ]this[/url] to say when I asked where the aliens were.
(he's not my real uncle, in fact he didn't even write the article)

Ming the Merciless - Member

Ohh they're out there, pray VERY hard they never find you.

The one that found us are the "good ones" but wait until the ones with similar mindset like us find us ... then we get harvested. 😯

eulach - Member

Uncle Fermi had this to say when I asked where the aliens were.
(he's not my real uncle, in fact he didn't even write the article)

Good article that I should enjoy reading it later on ... 😀

Voyager has left our solar system and travelling at 50,000 mph the next star is 40,000 years away 😯 space is definitely BIG

chvck - Member

I don't know where they are! A galaxy far, far away maybe...

Missed that response.

I wonder if one galaxy is only capable of maintaining one type of intelligent being? Yes? Otherwise, we would have seen our long lost "cousins" if there are more than one type of beings? 😛

If you have a decent PC, have a shuftie at Space Engine, a free planetarium type program. It's really rather ace

I bet they consider us parasite yes?

Imagine aliens belonging to a society with technology so advanced that it's indistinguishable from magic.

I bet they've finally agreed on a wheel size standard.

My brother sent me a link to an article that said for every grain of sand on earth, there are potentially 100 habitable planets. And that you have three stages of civilisation and we've yet to make it to one.

[url= http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html ]By god here it is...[/url]

So it’s not that we can’t pick up the signals from Planet X using our technology, it’s that we can’t even comprehend what the beings from Planet X are or what they’re trying to do.

Planet-X, damn them and their cheap carbon

Civilisations hang around for such a short amount of time, that it's very unlikely another civilisation will exist by the time we receive any signal they've emitted.

We've only been producing radio signals for 200 years, so only those stars very close to us have received those signals.

As a slight aside there are mathematically (though not practical whilst actually playing) more variations of a game of chess (10 to 123) than number of atoms in the observable universe (10 to 81)

And on a board somewhat smaller!

*opinion* BLOCKED

The wonder of our universe both intricate and infinitesimal is fabulous? Ìt is nothing without a chil?'s understanding

Bm'd for laters on when the Nephews come around, ta

So it’s not that we can’t pick up the signals from Planet X using our technology, it’s that we can’t even comprehend what the beings from Planet X are or what they’re trying to do.

I am not so sure, tbh. I think it's quite likely that alien beings will look quite like us, due to convergent evolution.

Civilisations hang around for such a short amount of time, that it's very unlikely another civilisation will exist by the time we receive any signal they've emitted.

We've only been producing radio signals for 200 years, so only those stars very close to us have received those signals.

Signals powerful enough to make out of the solar system have, I think, only been produced since the 1930s

Any alien life forms out there could be billions of years advanced of us. Can you imagine what even a couple of thousand years difference will make? They could be beyond our comprehension.

They could be beyond our comprehension.

I always liked Arthur C. Clarke's take on this:

[i]"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."[/i]

geetee1972 - Member
They could be beyond our comprehension.

Now you see, a few months back I got poo-poo'd on here for suggesting that. To repeat; as Humans we only know what we know. All science, maths and physics is bound to our own knowledge and interpretation, and we are too arrogant if we believe that the limits of our knowledge is therefore the limits and very definition of all knowledge.

Its very, very possible therefore that by design we cannot even comprehend what is out there because we do not have the capacity to understand it and therefore materialise it.

I think it's quite likely that alien beings will look quite like us, due to convergent evolution.

That depends on whether you consider us successful in evolutionary terms. For all our technological superiority and even our exponential population growth of late, we're far from being the most successful species on the planet. We'll never achieve what lichen has done before we were here, all the time we've been here and will do long after we're gone. Compared to something that has colonised every surface, at every altitude, from the poles to the equator we're not winning the whole survival of the fittest game. And thats just on land. Jellyfish are more successful than us and they have nothing even similar to a brain. Life could exist quite successfully and sustainably and completely elsewhere without any evolutionary pressure for intelligence of any sort.

That depends on whether you consider us successful in evolutionary terms

There's really no such thing as 'successful' in evolutionary terms, beyond reproducing. And we can do that pretty well.

However in terms of space exploration, which is what we are talking about, we are by far the most successful species on Earth 🙂

[i]from the poles to the equator we're not winning the whole survival of the fittest game[/i]

Evolution is purposeless, if there was one phrase that sums up a theory about as wrongly as it could, my vote would go with "..of the fittest"

dinosaurs were winning that 'game' for 165 million years (written human history about 6,000 years by comparison) right up until the point that they weren't.

There are loads of really good reasons why we can't contact aliens (which I happen to think exist), from we're too insignificant, to using the wrong/not yet thought of technology to talk to them, or them just being further out than we can see (we've only looked at aboyt 0.1% of the galaxy.

There's really no such thing as 'successful' in evolutionary terms, beyond reproducing. And we can do that pretty well.

Except that we choose when to reproduce, if we choose to reproduce at all. Amoeba don't decide to put their career first. 🙂

to using the wrong/not yet thought of technology to talk to them

There's some interesting science on this subject that explains why the 21cm Hydrogen Line is the most likely candidate for interstellar communication. Have a look [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_line ]here[/url].

There are also some really good books on the subject of whether life is by definition an evolutionary dead end. The question goes along the lines of asking whether life can ever evolve to a sufficiently advanced level that it could populate a galaxy or whether the physical constraints of competing for resources would always mean that life is pre-programmed to self destruct before that point. Of course, that might just our fate rather than the fate of any other intelligent life.

Fascinating stuff.

geetee, type 1, 11, 111 civilisations.

Let's hope the filter's behind us and it's just a matter of time. eh? 😉

geetee, type 1, 11, 111 civilisations.

That's really interesting. Not sure I'd come across that before, at least not referenced in this way.

Its very, very possible therefore that by design we cannot even comprehend what is out there

Evolution is purposeless, if there was one phrase that sums up a theory about as wrongly as it could, my vote would go with "..of the fittest"

I suspect you may be misinterpreting the meaning of the word "fittest" in this context.

Not "fittest" as in "most powerful" (or the like).

"Fittest" as in - the "best fit"...

That is to say - the species "best adapted" (fittest) to survive in that particular environment.

Just read 'Are you living in a computer simulation?' by Nick Bostrom. Bit more thought gone into it than the usually Matrix tin foil brigade. Interesting reading, although obviously conjecture.

Have a go on this then:

Scale of the Universe

Good for kids too.

This link is great ... thanks for posting.

But

But

It doesn't tell us how big the Universe is in the International standard of measuring size compaired to Wales !!

How many Wales would fit in the Universe ?

Anybody ?

Evolution is purposeless, if there was one phrase that sums up a theory about as wrongly as it could, my vote would go with "..of the fittest"

Anyway, I said on a thread like this a while back that I thought life would be discovered elsewhere in my lifetime, but it would be microbes on Europa or something. I still think there's a pretty good chance of that happening.

[i]the meaning of the word "fittest" in this context[/i]

Yes, a bit of hyperbole for effect 😆

I think, "The fittest tend to survive, reproduce, and hand down 'heritable' characteristics that have enhanced their survival chances to the next generation".

which is at least testable, if not as snappy 😉

Who was it that said, 'space is not only queerer than we think, it's queerer than we are able to think.'?
I love space/universe stuff but it gives me a bad head.

Who was it that said, 'space is not only queerer than we think, it's queerer than we are able to think.

J.B.S. Haldane. A man that could turn a phrase.

[i]but it would be microbes on Europa or something.[/i]

which would be crushing news TBH

Signals powerful enough to make out of the solar system have, I think, only been produced since the 1930s

[img] [/img]

Whether they'll be reconstructable at those distances is another point.

I always liked Arthur C. Clarke's take on this:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

I think you need to add 'to people primitive enough to believe in magic' onto the end of that quote.

Love this, Lmao

In "The size of Wales", Wales is always a two dimensional object. How can I count the number of two dimensional Waleses in a three dimensional universe?