jacobschndr:
And some people say theres an edge to the universe. I wouldn't see how you could see it since it's so damn far away because it's so frigging GIANORMOUS!!

the "edge of the universe" is just part of what's needed to conceive of the big bang theory.

I know you know what the theory is, but I'll give the footnotes for some context;

All of space was originally just a tiny spec, smaller then an atom, then one day, BAM, it explodes, and is now huge and growing.

That tiny speck had to be somewhere, so that's outside the universe, and it had an edge then.. so as it's expanding (basically at the speed of light) to this day, it must still have an edge.

And there is enough credible evidence to conclude that space is still expanding, making it inevitable that there's an edge out there somewhere, although you could no sooner reach it then run down a single photon of light.

It makes me sad that we will likely to be able to visit even one other of these stars in our life times.

I was reading a book the other day, i think its was bill Bryson's a short history of nearly everything. Anyways, apparently even with all those stars its most likely only about 200 planets in the universe are suitable for life. Things like temperature of star, distance from star, frequency of asteroid collisions, life length of star, planet size, atmosphere type etc, really limit the possibility of life. I wont say their isn't any more but i will say that i doubt we will find it soon.

Depends on your mindset when thinking of life. We humans assume that Oxygen and Water is needed. Perhaps some life forms breethe sulphur, and live on ice planets or something? No way to know, but i think it fits in with the oddities of the universe.

There's no way we're ever going to encounter any of this life anyway.

Hey, what's that weird shadow coming over my building?

The universe curls into itself in the fourth dimention... Well imagine that we live in a 2D world on the outside of a sphere, if we travel long enough in anyone direction, we will end up in exactly the same place as wee started out in.

As for how much of the universe we can see? That is an estimated radius of 10^10^29 meters, (1 kilometers, facts may have been edited by a moderator so that people could actually read this thread.)
a so called hubble volume. We cannot see any longer than this atm. because of the expansion of the universe.

Errr .....guys? Holy fuck... that isn't the universe. It's PART of it.
THIS........ is an image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax (from wiki)
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I have now over-awed at the size of our universe after checking out on wiki.

Btw.. site's here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Ultra_Deep_Field

:O

I am your bane, Meatloaf.

In this way as exactly how Pluto was first found, except it was found using 120 pictures, because Pluto was moving. It took that astronomer like 2 years.

Limasol:
It makes me sad that we will likely to be able to visit even one other of these stars in our life times.

I was reading a book the other day, i think its was bill Bryson's a short history of nearly everything. Anyways, apparently even with all those stars its most likely only about 200 planets in the universe are suitable for life. Things like temperature of star, distance from star, frequency of asteroid collisions, life length of star, planet size, atmosphere type etc, really limit the possibility of life. I wont say their isn't any more but i will say that i doubt we will find it soon.

That makes me sad too. I don't think we'll be anywhere close by the time I pass away. Even as much as technology changed from 1900 to 2000, it just feels like we're at a crawl now when it comes to space travel. At least we can look at these pictures and wonder what is out there. I think this is why I play so many games; it's the chance to go to places never seen before and see places I will never see in real life.

We're getting closer to detectecting "Earth-Like" planets. If you watch a show called The Universe, it is really amazing. Apparently over the last few years we're just now getting technology to where we can even detect the things.

Shit! This thread IS the Total Perspective Vortex!

Altorin:

the "edge of the universe" is just part of what's needed to conceive of the big bang theory.

I know you know what the theory is, but I'll give the footnotes for some context;

All of space was originally just a tiny spec, smaller then an atom, then one day, BAM, it explodes, and is now huge and growing.

That tiny speck had to be somewhere, so that's outside the universe, and it had an edge then.. so as it's expanding (basically at the speed of light) to this day, it must still have an edge.

And there is enough credible evidence to conclude that space is still expanding, making it inevitable that there's an edge out there somewhere, although you could no sooner reach it then run down a single photon of light.

No. There is no edge to space. As in the empty bit. There is just an edge to material space. The bit with (anti-)matter within it's boundaries.

This thread is breaking my browser.

Sorry, double post. Carry on.

And it all revolves around me!

googolplex

= 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

thats 10 to the power of 10(with one hunded zeroes.)

now consider the size of the universe as shown above.

now consider you could not write down this number if you converted all the know matter in the universe into paper.

and thats just 1 googolplex. what about a googolplex to the power of a googolplex.

the whole concept of infinity scares the shit out of me, i can hardly imagine these numbers.

JinxyKatte:
googolplex

= 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

thats 10 to the power of 10(with one hunded zeroes.)

now consider the size of the universe as shown above.

now consider you could not write down this number if you converted all the know matter in the universe into paper.

and thats just 1 googolplex. what about a googolplex to the power of a googolplex.

the whole concept of infinity scares the shit out of me, i can hardly imagine these numbers.

What about typing it?!?

Also surly 10 to the power of 10(with 100 zeros) is just 10 to the power of 10(with 1000 zeros)

All the black
in the universe...
So much
Empty
......Space
............Makes me realize
Nothing matters
Whatever..I
........do
.............Has...lasting effect
................no...............on
ANYTHING. .........................T_T
[/emo]

Wow, Douglas Adams was right when he said "space is big. Really really big. Space is so mind-bendingly, incomprehensibly big." I know I didn't get that quote right, so don't start.
There's defintely life out there, there has been, will be, and will always be life. It'll never get the technology to traverse between galaxies, however. That's simply too far.

SO FUCKING BIG!!!!!!!!!!11

EDIT: periods added for formatting.

no its not ok imagine doing the sum 10 to the power of 10 with 1 million zeroes.

10x10x10x10 10 million times. and thats just 10 with 6 0s.

imagine doing it 10 tillion times. (keep in mind its not possible to count to 1 billion in the span of a life time even if you did it all day every day from the day of birth.

trillion is 10 with 9 zeroes ok.

now re think about 10 to the power of 10 with 100 zeroes.

Another picture that is so amazingly beautiful - You have to see the full size version to see the detail:

Full sized version link: 6,000 x 2,906 pixels at 7.32 MB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Eta_Carinae_Nebula_1.jpg

I didn't know it is a real picture - I thought it was just a well-done painting before I found out the name.

EDIT: Nevermind

SmugFrog:
It's estimated that our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains anywhere from 200,000,000,000 to 400,000,000,000 stars (I used the 0's to give you more of a visual on the size). Now obviously every galaxy in our universe doesn't contain that many stars, and some will contain more - but keep that number in mind.

Estimating 200 billion stars per galaxy, with 10 k viewable galaxies in each picture, multiplied by 12.7 million:

25,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars could be in "viewable" distance from earth. That's 25.4 sextillion, but that doesn't look as awesome without the zeros. Obviously, you wouldn't be able to see each individual star, but that is just awesomeness.

And, as you said, this is just the viewable universe. As the universe is an estimated 14+ billion years old, logic says that we could see 14 billion light years out. However, many physicists believe the universe underwent super-expansion earlier on it's in development. This means that matter expanded outward into space faster than the speed of light. This means that the universe could well be ten even a thousand times larger than what we can see. Seems science paints an even grander picture of the universe than any religion or story ever has.

Shivari:

I love doing that when I'm camping in the middle of nowhere. But around here the city lights pretty much kill all but a small portion of the stars.

Ah light pollution. One envirnmental problem that goes unnoticed. One reason I'm glad I live in the "boonies". Makes the life of a life-long amateur astronomer so much nicer. (and easier on the wallet where gas for travel to good viewing points is concerned)

Jark212:
I will bet anyone that there is life up there... If you can't tell i'm into theoretical physics

Well, with the shear size of it all, even if life is just a random, happenstantial event that is extraordinarily unlikely to occur unless the most specific criteria are met, there'd still be billions upon billions of other civilizations out there. A safe bet to be sure. Unfortunately, and ironically, with space being as large as it is, we will probably never find any other life out there. Even if we invent some means of faster-than-light travel.

JinxyKatte:
googolplex

= 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

thats 10 to the power of 10(with one hunded zeroes.)

now consider the size of the universe as shown above.

now consider you could not write down this number if you converted all the know matter in the universe into paper.

and thats just 1 googolplex. what about a googolplex to the power of a googolplex.

the whole concept of infinity scares the shit out of me, i can hardly imagine these numbers.

or for simplicities sake, a googolplex is a 1 followed by a googol zeroes. but yeah, super large-scale numbers are scary, even for the most hard-core of mathematicians, and even these numbers pale to the number scales needed to quantify the universe.

Vigormortis:
or for simplicities sake, a googolplex is a 1 followed by a googol zeroes.

No, it's 10^googol there's a very big difference.

TheGhostOfSin:

Vigormortis:
or for simplicities sake, a googolplex is a 1 followed by a googol zeroes.

No, it's 10^googol there's a very big difference.

um....10^googol is, when written out, a one followed by a googol zeros. as in, you'd have to type zero a googol times. you're statement is self-defeating.

From Wikipedia:

A googolplex is the number one followed by one googol zeroes, or ten raised to the power of one googol:

10^googol = 10^(10^100).

In the documentary Cosmos, physicist and broadcast personality Carl Sagan estimated that writing a googolplex in numerals (i.e., "1,000,000,000...") would be physically impossible, since doing so would require more space than the known universe occupies.

That picture literally took my breath away. To think that it supposedly goes on for infinity is just too much for my mind to comprehend.

Quoting Keanu Reeves

"Whoa!"

And anyways, 10^googol isn't as big as Graham's Number.

SmugFrog:
From Wikipedia:

A googolplex is the number one followed by one googol zeroes, or ten raised to the power of one googol:

10^googol = 10^(10^100).

In the documentary Cosmos, physicist and broadcast personality Carl Sagan estimated that writing a googolplex in numerals (i.e., "1,000,000,000...") would be physically impossible, since doing so would require more space than the known universe occupies.

You deserve a cookie. I probably should have quoted wiki from the start, but hey. :/

Heh. Looks like the star map to Star Control II.

I have never felt so small.... I'm amazed, and if it wasn't for the fact I like having an x-wing as my desktop background, this would definatly be my new background.

Hellion25:
That picture literally took my breath away. To think that it supposedly goes on for infinity is just too much for my mind to comprehend.

It doesn't. Nothing can. It merely goes on for a distance we can't understand. It's effectively infinite.

The funny thing about trying to scientifically examine the universe as a whole is... it's about 98% guesswork. The universe could be infinite for all we know. It could be constantly expanding or constantly shrinking, or doing both at a random rate. I could say almost any theory I wanted about the universe and there'd be no way to definitively prove me wrong.

Vigormortis:

Shivari:

I love doing that when I'm camping in the middle of nowhere. But around here the city lights pretty much kill all but a small portion of the stars.

Ah light pollution. One envirnmental problem that goes unnoticed. One reason I'm glad I live in the "boonies". Makes the life of a life-long amateur astronomer so much nicer. (and easier on the wallet where gas for travel to good viewing points is concerned)

The best view I've seen of the night sky has been out on the open ocean at night, hundreds of miles from land or any other light source. It looks sort of like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Deathvalleysky_nps_big.jpg

I just wish that this picture was in color. Does anyone have a better one?

That's absolutely incredible

Danzorz:
looking at this picture while tripping would be hilarious.

It would probably make you forget about gravity for a split second and cause you to fly, which is tricky, but it can be done, I think (comedic reference from the wonderful Douglas Adams)

[

SmugFrog:
Another picture that is so amazingly beautiful - You have to see the full size version to see the detail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Eta_Carinae_Nebula_1.jpg

I didn't know it is a real picture - I thought it was just a well-done painting before I found out the name.

Thanks for the new wallpaper!