Page 2 of 7 FirstFirst 123456 ... LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 61

Thread: Amazing Light Show, with NO 'audience scanning' (just a few gamma-rays! ;)

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    4,382

    Default

    Beautiful pics, I used to have one of those hanging in the bathroom; the big cloud nebula looking thing.
    A first season of Sliders
    Speaking of cancelled TV shows, ones I really miss are Lexx, Son of the beach, Eureka, and has anyone ever heard of a show called "The Prisoner" with Patrick McGoohan (Secret Agent Man) back in the '60s? A really way out-there kind of a tv series..

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Cool

    I remember "The Prisioner", even though by the time I saw it it was already in syndication. The most powerful image I have of that show is the "rover"... That creepy white balloon-robot thing that chased after you if you tried to escape, and would eventually catch you and suffocate you. Yuck.

    Adam

  3. #13
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Native Floridian
    Posts
    3,127

    Default

    One of the things that I find most fascinating with space is the shear size of it. People always say we just can't comprehend just how big it is. Throwing around terms such as lightyears, parsecs and astronimical units are meaningless because even those are incomprehesible. I remember reading in the Burnhams Celestial Handbook about the Crab Nebula and the insane speed at which it is expanding. The numbers range from 1500km/s to 1800km/s or around 1000 miles per second! Which is equivalent to a drive from Jacksonville, FL to New York city in 1 second. So you would think that with such an amazing speed that it would be easy to see or even photograph. Well, you'd be correct, sorta. The animation below (you may have to click on the pic to get it to animate) is from 2 photos taken at different times. Its easy to see the little bit of movement among the backdrop of the stars. Here's the neat part, between the two photos the nebula has expanded 851,472,000,000 miles. With that information, its easy to decifer how much time there is between the two photo's. Asuming my math is correct... Anyone care to venture a guess?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails m1animation.gif  


  4. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Toronto Canada
    Posts
    1,120

    Default

    Looking at those picture can't make me stop thinking about other civilizations....but new study showed that inquisition and catl church could be right. Planet earth is in a very unique place surrounded by a lot of protective bodies like our moon and Jupiter. Take out those 2 things and life on Earth could not survive long enough. Theory goes that Earth indeed could be...well not ONLY...but one of very few that could sustain life for long enough. That may explain why none ever contacted the earth....or...

    Like in anecdote...

    Wild west...2 cowboys talking.
    Suddenly small tornado passed them and disappears behind horizon.
    - Whats that?
    - Uncatchable Joe!
    - It means nobody can catch him?
    - No it means nobody cares!
    I hired an Italian guy to do my wires. Now they look like spaghetti!

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Cool

    Quote Originally Posted by DZ View Post
    Anyone care to venture a guess?
    27 years, assuming my math is correct.

    If you think the crab nebula is expanding rapidly, check out the predicted velocities for the gas jets from supermassive black holes. They reach relativistic speeds!

    The physics going on in and around a black hole simply boggle the mind. You run out of superlatives to use!

    Interesting fact: many astronomers now believe that a black hole may just be the most efficient engine for converting matter into energy. Of course, it's hardly a practical engine...

    Adam

  6. #16
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Native Floridian
    Posts
    3,127

    Default

    27 years, assuming my math is correct.

    If you think the crab nebula is expanding rapidly, check out the predicted velocities for the gas jets from supermassive black holes. They reach relativistic speeds!

    The physics going on in and around a black hole simply boggle the mind. You run out of superlatives to use!

    Interesting fact: many astronomers now believe that a black hole may just be the most efficient engine for converting matter into energy. Of course, it's hardly a practical engine...
    Well I guess I did my math right then, yes, 27 years between the two photos.

    I agree about black holes being mind boggling. There are alot of neat physics and theories regarding black holes. Photo below is pretty neat, showing what is believed to be ejected material shooting away from a black hole at near light speed. No clue as to how long this trail is, perhaps many thousands of light years long.

    Looking at those picture can't make me stop thinking about other civilizations....but new study showed that inquisition and catl church could be right. Planet earth is in a very unique place surrounded by a lot of protective bodies like our moon and Jupiter.
    I believe that just our galaxy alone is teaming with life. Intellegent or not. There are two big things preventing us from knowing, distance and time. I remember watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos series, in it, he compressed the entire theoretical existance of the universe to 1 calendar year, we've only existed in the last few seconds of the calendar year. There may very well have been intelligent life nearby, but when, 100 years ago, 100,000 years ago, in either case, none of the technology we have today could prove they existed unless we sent something there to look. It just takes so long to get anything anywhere, heck the Voyager I and II space crafts, launched in the 70's, traveling at around 38,000 miles per hour have not even left the solar system. It will eventually leave the solar system and enter interstellar space, I think in just a few years. And the closest it will get to another star is about a light year, which will happen in about 40,000 years! Kinda puts things in perspective if you ask me!
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 22.jpg  


  7. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    SoCal / San Salvador / NY
    Posts
    4,018

    Default

    Hey Guys -

    Wow - glad there's so many 'space nuts' here, too! - great discussions...

    Yeah, the distances in Space just fry the noodle - I think it is mostly because 'FINITE' creatures such as ourselves (even if one, personally, believes in some sort of 'afterlife', the 'body' - 'YOU' as we all know you - ceases to exist, therefore, we as humans, are 'finite' - I have my own particular 'left-of-the-dial' thoughts, but that's a story for another day... ) - really are 'running into a wall', when we try and even CONTEMPLATE INFINITY - it just does not 'compute' in our 'finite-world' - like a "601" in the noggin...

    ..and I particularly have always enjoyed the theories about the 'structure' of the Universe - being like a 'web' or 'sheet' - or - one I read, was that it is like the base of an 'egg carton', with 'sine-shaped waves' of GIGANTIC 'webs' of galaxy - CLUSTERS (!!!) all bound forming this massive, scrillion-lightyear-square undulating 'shape' / structure... fascinating... albeit, probably at least partially psychotropically-formulated!

    ...and I dunno about you guys, but this:



    ...looks like one helluva GIGANTIC BEAM to me! - BOC / Floyd, eat 'yer laser-heart out!

    ...here's another 'oldie but a goodie'...
    njoy..

    peace...

    - J
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Nebuloni and Cheese.jpg  

    ....and armed only with his trusty 21 Zorgawatt KTiOPO4...

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Toronto Canada
    Posts
    1,120

    Default

    The structure of universe theoretically very simple. Galaxies form meta galaxies they form mega meta galaxies...But what I don't believe is that universe is infinite. Makes no logical sense.
    I hired an Italian guy to do my wires. Now they look like spaghetti!

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Toronto Canada
    Posts
    1,120

    Default

    one I read, was that it is like the base of an 'egg carton'

    This is based on Einsteins theories. Which are made with a cup of tea in the hand. Yes I totally not accepting Einstein's theories especially All that relativity stuff. What more I'm not accepting is how his theories were made into dogma. Students were expelled from universities because they questioned his theories. I'm not kidding. It happened all around the globe in mid 20 century. We still have a lot of dogmatic professors but their numbers are shrinking. Thanks .....(insert your god's name here)
    I hired an Italian guy to do my wires. Now they look like spaghetti!

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    SoCal / San Salvador / NY
    Posts
    4,018

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Dr Laser View Post
    ...Makes no logical sense.
    Hey Doc - ...My point exactly... I, too, can 'buy' that the UNIVERSE (as we know it / define it, composed of incomprehensively gigantic spaces filled with mind-blowingly-big galaxies, and even bigger galxc-CLUSTERS / 'indie-stars' / wild, gas 'light shows' / phenomenons (black holes, etc, etc) - IS 'FINITE' - in that, all this 'stuff' might not actually 'go on', and on, and on, and.... BUT, THEN, if that is the case - - - WHAT IS OUTSIDE OF THIS MEGA 'SNOW-GLOBE'?????????? - I mean, as noodle-frying as it is, HOW CAN pure SPACE - 'The Void' - ever really 'STOP'????

    I mean, that's where the 'circuits start frying' in my little noggin...I just think we 'humans' are just not ABLE to fully understand (logically or otherwise) 'true' infinity - We are FINITE in every way, and so is everything in our experience. Everything ends (from our 'perspective', even if 'infinite things', ie: time, go on 'without us', us 'mortals' have never experienced 'immortality' in any sense... From our births, on - Everything breaks. Everything stops. Everything dies. - yes, we have close-things, ie: DAYS (Sun always rises/sets); Earths' cycles (rain/air/Co2 production, etc) - but those are really not truly 'immortal' / infinite - they COULD BE STOPPED, (ie: if we stopped the Earth from rotating, etc) So, yeah, how CAN WE really 'get' Infinity...but I don't think that proves it does not 'exist'. (or were you JUST speaking of the 'Universe' and not ALL of 'Space'..??)

    Now, SOME 'irrational-concepts', we certainly CAN learn to understand...simple example: As we get older (and Laserman, I am sure you can back me up on this... JUST TEASING!!!!! ) we all know how time seems to 'fly' / 'go faster' - YEARS seem like MONTHS, to us, now - but obviously, time doesn't 'DO' anything, it is simply our 'measuring device' for a/the sequence of events as we relate those to our 'existence' - it is merely that as we get older, those longer spans of time (like 'years') SEEM shorter, because they ARE shorter 'segments', as-compared-to our TOTAL time 'existing' - it's just a 'perception' thing.

    BUT with infinity - we have NOTHING, even in our TOTAL LIFETIME experience, TO 'compare it to'... so, I think, that's why we just sort of 'short-circuit' a bit, on that subject.

    To me, the concept that whatever is OUTSIDE of all of those stars / galaxies of stars, etc, etc, etc - for HOWEVER 'far-out' all that stuff 'goes' - does not 'stop' - really, how CAN it 'stop'? - is...just...well...Bzzzzzrrffft!

    Anyhoo, Space 'light-show-pix' sure are awe-inspiring, eh?

    peace..
    - J
    ....and armed only with his trusty 21 Zorgawatt KTiOPO4...

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •