The Space Thread

[BRSTLDRGN]

Kind of inspired by Brian Cox's fantastic show on the Beeb, thought I'd find out who else is utterley amazed when they look up into a starry night and contemplates the vastness and marvel of it.

The fact that things like this can exist out there is mind-boggling;

 

[TNT88]

Agreed. Some good pictures/wallpapers to be seen here: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/top100/

 

[shtove]

My desktop is eta carinae - see how many faces you can spot:

 

[Seaton]

How awesome must it be to be working as an astrophysicist?

Wonder what kind of tasks you need to do inorder to get into a uni to study quantumn physics and the likes, I am guessing that ordinary school maths and science don't quite cut it...

Imagine that in just a few thousand years humans could be on their way to these galaxies

Fae's up for a round of cyrogeneric freezing or whatever its proper name is?

 

[smartcooky]

I currently have this one on my business card

"The Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula.

One of the interesting things about them in that, in all likelihood, they were destroyed about 6,000 years ago by the shock-wave of a nearby supernova. Astronomers reported in 2007 that they can see the shock-wave approaching the Pillars, but because they are about 7000 light years away from us, we still see them as they were. We won't actually see their destruction for about another 1000 years.

What I wouldn't give to be around to see that!!!

 

[Seaton]

Wouldn't it take at the very least a couple of decades for that to happen though, I mean from the start of the impact to point at which the opposite side moves?

In which case being around might not cut it

 

[Feicarsinn]

How awesome must it be to be working as an astrophysicist?

Wonder what kind of tasks you need to do inorder to get into a uni to study quantumn physics and the likes, I am guessing that ordinary school maths and science don't quite cut it...

Imagine that in just a few thousand years humans could be on their way to these galaxies

Fae's up for a round of cyrogeneric freezing or whatever its proper name is?

Apparently being an astrophysicist is pretty dull. I've got the option to specialise in it after 2nd year, but I don't think it's for me. Lots of sitting at a computer crunching numbers. Bleh.

Quantum physics is bloody tough alright. The level of maths is pretty crazy. Luckily enough they don't throw it at you till your 3rd year in physics, so you've done 2 years of pretty advanced physics and maths by the time you come to it.

Anyways, I've got a good few lecture notes on both topics if anyone is interested. I won't post them, primarily because they're uni property.

EDIT: Actually I could link them if you want, they're not protected on the website, so whatever.

 

[smartcooky]

Wouldn't it take at the very least a couple of decades for that to happen though, I mean from the start of the impact to point at which the opposite side moves?

In which case being around might not cut it

By 1000 years time, we'll have either completely ****** the planet and we won't exist, or we'll have life-spans measured in tens of decades. However, you are right, these things take a while. Here is an example.

In 1987 a Supernova exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own. I was one of a group of amateur astronomers who gathered photometric data using the Canterbury Astronomical Society's 14" Cassegrain telescope at West Melton Observatory west of Christchurch.

Prior to the explosion, it was just a Main Sequence blue super-giant star, not visible to the naked eye, a pinpoint of light on the edge of the Tarantula Nebula.

This is what it looked like in 2007, 20 years later from Hubble...

And then more recently from the VLT

 

[shtove]

Apparently being an astrophysicist is pretty dull. I've got the option to specialise in it after 2nd year, but I don't think it's for me. Lots of sitting at a computer crunching numbers. Bleh.

You can always go into investment banking - alot of the missold financial products that broke the banks were designed by physicists and mathematicians who got lured in by big paychecks. Not blaming them for the misselling, but their expertise makes it easier to bamboozle everyone.

 

[Feicarsinn]

You can always go into investment banking - alot of the missold financial products that broke the banks were designed by physicists and mathematicians who got lured in by big paychecks. Not blaming them for the misselling, but their expertise makes it easier to bamboozle everyone.

Aye alot of physics students end up in finance. The maths skills are pretty transferable and the money's pretty tasty. Shame about the whole lack of a soul thing.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

My brother did physics with an emphasis on astro-physics at uni and is now a software programmer - he well should've gone to work for NASA or something

 

[jwh10]

Its the vastness that staggers me to the point of sometimes being completely incomprehensible! Incredible really, and shows just how small and insignificant we actually are here.

 

[Jer1cho]

I found this comparison really crazy!!!!:

ANTARES IS THE 15TH BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE SKY.
IT IS MORE THAN 1000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY.

THIS IS A HUBBLE TELESCOPE ULTRA DEEP FIELD INFRARED VIEW OF COUNTLESS ENTIRE' GALAXIES BILLIONS OF LIGHT-YEARS AWAY.

BELOW IS A CLOSE UP OF ONE OF THE DARKEST REGIONS OF THE PHOTO ABOVE.

It's never-ending...

 

[Seaton]

I'd hate to be in the same hemisphere of the universe as Betelgeuse if it went into Supernova (I think there is actually a term for a very large Supernova, like Meganova or something?)


@ Feicarsinn

It would be great if you could post those links

 

[Feicarsinn]

Sure, no bother. I'll go get them in a minute. Not trying to hijack the thread, but I thought I'd post some electron microscope pics here. They're absolutely stunning and make a great contrast to the vastness of space.

Some blood cells:

A 14 day old mouse embryo:

A lung:

Needle and thread:

 

[Feicarsinn]

Erm, I couldn't get at the lecture notes from my course, but these ones look pretty good. They're not as interesting truth be told, but they get the info across. I've also posted so Modern physics and some Quantum stuff.

Astrophysics: http://www.physics.hmc.edu/faculty/esin/a062/

Modern Physics: http://physics.tcd.ie/Foams/Lecture_Notes/PY1P20_origins_of_modern_physics/

Quantum Mechanics: http://sites.google.com/site/maurengo/py3003-quantummechanics(juniorsophister)

 

[TNT88]

Try this:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347

The scale of the universe.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Meh. There's no evidence for a preon at the moment. As far as we know a quark isn't made up of anything, it's just a thing.

 

[shtove]

Try this:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347

The scale of the universe.

Clever.

I've lost the bookmark, but there's a great scaling video of the universe from something like 10 to the minus 20 to plus 20 - the camera view point expands from the atomic to the cosmic.