This was posted here a year or two ago, but I thought it was certainly worth a repost in the Science! forum.

Scale of the Universe

I was watching some kind of universe documentary series on Netflix recently that showed the best illustration I've ever seen of universal scale. It made it semi-comprehensible, which is more than most attempts manage. They showed a planet with a moon orbiting it, then a sun with planets orbiting it. Then an arm of a spiral galaxy with thousands of stars. Then a galaxy. Then a cluster of galaxies. Then a cluster of clusters (supercluster). Then they showed "filaments", which are a natural grouping of millions of superclusters. The filament illustration was beautiful, and drove home the...HUGE...amazing giganticness of the universe.

I'm too afraid of the Total Perspective Vortex to click that link.

IBCoupe wrote:I'm too afraid of the Total Perspective Vortex to click that link.

It's Halloween, you're supposed to be afraid.

Eh, maybe you'll do better with this, it's not nearly as scary.

<----- still believe alien life exists out there somewhere....or here....

The universe is very interesting to see how big & what's out there that we do not know at this very moment. I'm totally into learning new things about the universe

Welcome to the Universe!

Population: 0*


*Although you might see people from time to time, they are most likely products of your imagination. Simple mathematics tells us that the population of the Universe must be zero. Why? Well given that the volume of the universe is infinite there must be an infinite number of worlds. But not all of them are populated; therefore only a finite number are. Any finite number divided by infinity is as close to zero as makes no odds, therefore we can round the average population of the Universe to zero, and so the total population must be zero.

So

much

Douglas

Adams

in

this

thread

It's better that way.

Encryptshun wrote:So

much

Douglas

Adams

in

this

thread

IBCoupe wrote:It's better that way.

You mean self-important & overrated? Sure, I guess.

Slartibartfast is my hero.

MinisterofDOOM wrote:Slartibartfast is my hero.

Would that make your favourite car a Fjord?

Just because I think they're overrated doesn't mean I haven't read them.

BusyBadger wrote:

MinisterofDOOM wrote:Slartibartfast is my hero.

Would that make your favourite car a Fjord?

Bad joke or not, I've referred to Fords as Fjords for years. So yeah, it would.

Life, the Universe, and Everything is brilliant. Best of the series ten times over.

Do you mean Adams is overrated or the Hitchiker's series?

I thoroughly enjoyed Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul as well.

LOL Thor

Encryptshun wrote:Do you mean Adams is overrated or the Hitchiker's series?

I thoroughly enjoyed Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul as well.

LOL Thor

All excellent books. They are not heavy literature, but Douglas Adams is well worth the read.

If you all recall, I had the icon from the Hithhiker's Guide movie as my avatar for a long time. So, yeah, I am a fan.

I met Adams once (now have books autographed by him). He is a real nice guy and a good speaker too. We talked about the movie plans (this was years before the movie came out) ... he wanted Jeff Goldblum to play the role of Arthur Dent. This did not happen, of course.

Recently, I re-listened to the tapes I have of all the 12 original radio episodes from the BBC ... in my car back and forth from work. People were probably wondering why I was laughing while driving ... bet it made them stay far away from me on the road.

Z

szh wrote: I met Adams once (now have books autographed by him). He was a real nice guy and a good speaker too.

Z

FTFY

Why do the good ones go so young?

The size of the Universe makes me want to throw up sometimes. Well, atleast I now understand Plank's constant. I always wondered why it was sooo dam small at 10^-35 and what it meant. Did anyone else see "now everytime I drink water, Im swallowing billions of Mickey Mouse heads"

And of course the classic
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0[/youtube]

Encryptshun wrote:

szh wrote: I met Adams once (now have books autographed by him). He was a real nice guy and a good speaker too.

Z

FTFY

Oops, yeah. I used the wrong tense ...

Encryptshun wrote:Why do the good ones go so young?

Sad indeed.

Z

What if the universe isn't so big? What if maybe we're just one galaxy, but its like the old asteroids game, where if you roll too far to the left, you pop back in on the right. Maybe all the galaxies we see are just ourselves over again, distorted different ways by the overlap.

I kid...I kid....

Still, if you watch black God on Through the Wormhole, they spotlight the full specturm of theory, not so much creationism or intelligent design, but most anything else goes. One dude they had laid it out sorta like I did above, but it was more like space is wrapped around a sphere. Not sure what moving up or down does though LOL.

Careful, stebo. You're mighty close to channeling carloslebaron with that post.

Now take the pants off your head and step away from the peanut butter.

Encryptshun wrote: Now take the pants off your head and step away from the peanut butter.

LOL Can I keep my nutella?!?

Encryptshun wrote:Careful, stebo. You're mighty close to channeling carloslebaron with that post.

Now take the pants off your head and step away from the peanut butter.

Imagine the Universe as more of a donut instead of a sphere

Ok doughnut (torus) shape. So is that in the literal 3 dimensional sense, or just lying on the surface? What happens when I try to walk across the hole in the center, do i pop up on the other side immediately? If I walk on the surface, around I come back to my staring point eventually right? Much akin to the sphere shell model, only shaped differently. Maybe Im just not grasping the idea, but I fail to see how torus solves anything.