26 Pictures Will Make You Re-Evaluate Your Entire Existence

[Luddly Neddite]

26 Pictures Will Make You Re-Evaluate Your Entire Existence

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-universe-is-scary#.eknnw8L0v

Fascinating.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I looked.

See no reason to reevaluate my entire existence.

What did I miss?

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Is one the deep field pic from Hubble showing what appears to be a field of stars but it's actually galaxies? We like to think we're so special yet if the Earth suddenly blew up I assure you the universe wouldn't even notice.

 

[ChrisL]

26 Pictures Will Make You Re-Evaluate Your Entire Existence


Fascinating.

It is fascinating. I've always thought the universe and galaxies, etc., were fascinating.

 

[gtopa1]

Is one the deep field pic from Hubble showing what appears to be a field of stars but it's actually galaxies? We like to think we're so special yet if the Earth suddenly blew up I assure you the universe wouldn't even notice.

I'd notice!!

Greg

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Is one the deep field pic from Hubble showing what appears to be a field of stars but it's actually galaxies? We like to think we're so special yet if the Earth suddenly blew up I assure you the universe wouldn't even notice.

I'd notice!!

Greg

Only very briefly. "What's that flash?" - "What fla..."

 

[ChrisL]

Is one the deep field pic from Hubble showing what appears to be a field of stars but it's actually galaxies? We like to think we're so special yet if the Earth suddenly blew up I assure you the universe wouldn't even notice.

I'd notice!!

Greg

Is one the deep field pic from Hubble showing what appears to be a field of stars but it's actually galaxies? We like to think we're so special yet if the Earth suddenly blew up I assure you the universe wouldn't even notice.

I'd notice!!

Greg

Only very briefly. "What's that flash?" - "What fla..."

Yeah, kind of like "oh shi . . . " The end.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Too late.

My mind was already blown when I was 5 or 6 and first heard of atoms, and when I'd lay on the grass and look at the sky, I would wonder if all the stars and planets were mere atoms to some other universe and they to others, still.

I didn't actually drop acid until 9 years later, but I was laying the groundwork.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

It is fascinating. I've always thought the universe and galaxies, etc., were fascinating.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Is one the deep field pic from Hubble showing what appears to be a field of stars but it's actually galaxies? We like to think we're so special yet if the Earth suddenly blew up I assure you the universe wouldn't even notice.

I'd notice!!

Greg

Is one the deep field pic from Hubble showing what appears to be a field of stars but it's actually galaxies? We like to think we're so special yet if the Earth suddenly blew up I assure you the universe wouldn't even notice.

I'd notice!!

Greg

Only very briefly. "What's that flash?" - "What fla..."

Yeah, kind of like "oh shi . . . " The end.

Worst way for the planet to end would be a wandering black hole showing up. Wouldn't be instant or even quick. We'd notice it first when planets in the outter solar system flew off their usual orbits. As it got closer we'd see tidal changes. We'd know full well what was coming and what would happen and how utterly powerless we were to prevent it let alone escape. Knowing you're gonna die and there's nothing you can do about it is why religion's so popular.

 

[ChrisL]

Is one the deep field pic from Hubble showing what appears to be a field of stars but it's actually galaxies? We like to think we're so special yet if the Earth suddenly blew up I assure you the universe wouldn't even notice.

I'd notice!!

Greg

Is one the deep field pic from Hubble showing what appears to be a field of stars but it's actually galaxies? We like to think we're so special yet if the Earth suddenly blew up I assure you the universe wouldn't even notice.

I'd notice!!

Greg

Only very briefly. "What's that flash?" - "What fla..."

Yeah, kind of like "oh shi . . . " The end.

Worst way for the planet to end would be a wandering black hole showing up. Wouldn't be instant or even quick. We'd notice it first when planets in the outter solar system flew off their usual orbits. As it got closer we'd see tidal changes. We'd know full well what was coming and what would happen and how utterly powerless we were to prevent it let alone escape. Knowing you're gonna die and there's nothing you can do about it is why religion's so popular.

Yeah, that would tend to kind of suck.

 

[ChrisL]

Too late.

My mind was already blown when I was 5 or 6 and first heard of atoms, and when I'd lay on the grass and look at the sky, I would wonder if all the stars and planets were mere atoms to some other universe and they to others, still.

I didn't actually drop acid until 9 years later, but I was laying the groundwork.

I find it fascinating that the universe is SO vast. It is "infinite" as far as we are concerned. Black holes, all of the cool looking galaxies and stars. It's quite amazing, really. When you really think about it, it is almost impossible to believe that our planet is the only one that has "life." I always think that there MUST be other planets somewhere out there with life.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Seems like every Sunday Science Channel shows a bunch of end of the world documentaries. One discusses this and other astronomical events which would suck for us. Eventually, the Sun will enter its' red giant phase and begin expanding eventually encompassing the first 3 planets (we're no. 3 btw.) We'll literally be inside the Sun. We're done then. Then a billion years later the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies "collide." Nothing actually touches of course oweing to the distances between stars, but the increased radiation from so many more nearby stars, and the gravitational mess it's gonna wreck assures both galaxies will be very different, and a lot of people are gonna be screaming. Then there's gamma ray bursts, the most powerful energy emission in the universe we know of so far. A few have hit the Earth in the distant past causing mass extinctions, and a star close enough and bursting now is pointed at us. If it bursts while we're aligned it'll fry off our atmosphere and we'll be chewing hard vacuum. There'll be a flash which if it doesn't blind and kill you outright will hit you with so much radiation you'll die very unpleasantly. Magnetar stars are my fave. So magnetic that if one were in close proximity like a few light-years away the gravitational pull they exert would rip the iron from our blood. And our very molecules apart. That'd be kinda neat. Like that guard in X-Men Magneto rips the iron out of.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Too late.

My mind was already blown when I was 5 or 6 and first heard of atoms, and when I'd lay on the grass and look at the sky, I would wonder if all the stars and planets were mere atoms to some other universe and they to others, still.

I didn't actually drop acid until 9 years later, but I was laying the groundwork.

I find it fascinating that the universe is SO vast. It is "infinite" as far as we are concerned. Black holes, all of the cool looking galaxies and stars. It's quite amazing, really. When you really think about it, it is almost impossible to believe that our planet is the only one that has "life." I always think that there MUST be other planets somewhere out there with life.

Given nothing else in the known universe is unique, planets will life shouldn't logically be the exception. As we see here on Earth, anywhere life can exist, it does exist, and in great quantity. And since the conditions enabling life to exist and flourish aren't so hard to come by, it's as close to an absolute certainty the universe is teeming with life.

The universe isn't actually infinite. Think they started saying that simply because it's so big. But it had a beginning, anything with a beginning isn't infinite. To be infinite in area it'd also have to be infinitely old. It isn't. Nor even very old as big numbers go.

 

[ChrisL]

Too late.

My mind was already blown when I was 5 or 6 and first heard of atoms, and when I'd lay on the grass and look at the sky, I would wonder if all the stars and planets were mere atoms to some other universe and they to others, still.

I didn't actually drop acid until 9 years later, but I was laying the groundwork.

I find it fascinating that the universe is SO vast. It is "infinite" as far as we are concerned. Black holes, all of the cool looking galaxies and stars. It's quite amazing, really. When you really think about it, it is almost impossible to believe that our planet is the only one that has "life." I always think that there MUST be other planets somewhere out there with life.

Given nothing else in the known universe is unique, planets will life shouldn't logically be the exception. As we see here on Earth, anywhere life can exist, it does exist, and in great quantity. And since the conditions enabling life to exist and flourish aren't so hard to come by, it's as close to an absolute certainty the universe is teeming with life.

The universe isn't actually infinite. Think they started saying that simply because it's so big. But it had a beginning, anything with a beginning isn't infinite. To be infinite in area it'd also have to be infinitely old. It isn't. Nor even very old as big numbers go.

Agree.

Well, that's why I said it's infinite as far as we're concerned.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Looking at the link, there isn't really an 'on Jupiter.' There's no solidity to Jupiter, it's just gas. A fascinating fact unto itself though.

One of the collest things I've learned in astronomy is the size of stars. We think of our Sun as being so big when compared to the Earth, but there are stars we know of as big to our Sun as the Earth is to the Sun. The often heard of (perhaps) Dog Star is the biggest we've found thus far.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Rho_Cassiopeiae_Sol_VY_Canis_Majoris.png

Even at fullsize, the Sun to Canis (the Dog star) is little more than a single pixel.)

 

[Nosmo King]

Those who have been fortunate enough to visit the Rose Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History in New York will, no doubt remember the display outside the big spherical theater. The big sphere is about 85 feet in diameter and housed in a glass cubical building. Here's a picture:

Once you leave the inside of the sphere, where you are treated to a wonderful visual experience detailing the immensity of the universe, you walk down a ramp that spirals around the sphere. Using the sphere as a reference, you are asked to ponder relative size. For instance, if the sphere was the sun, the size of earth would be about the size of a bicycle. If the size of the earth was the size of a basketball, our moon would be the size of a basketball. If a drop of water was the size of a basketball, the virus that causes the common cold would be the size of a golf ball. And so on, and so on.

It really makes one feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

 

[gtopa1]

Too late.

My mind was already blown when I was 5 or 6 and first heard of atoms, and when I'd lay on the grass and look at the sky, I would wonder if all the stars and planets were mere atoms to some other universe and they to others, still.

I didn't actually drop acid until 9 years later, but I was laying the groundwork.

Those who have been fortunate enough to visit the Rose Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History in New York will, no doubt remember the display outside the big spherical theater. The big sphere is about 85 feet in diameter and housed in a glass cubical building. Here's a picture:

Once you leave the inside of the sphere, where you are treated to a wonderful visual experience detailing the immensity of the universe, you walk down a ramp that spirals around the sphere. Using the sphere as a reference, you are asked to ponder relative size. For instance, if the sphere was the sun, the size of earth would be about the size of a bicycle. If the size of the earth was the size of a basketball, our moon would be the size of a basketball. If a drop of water was the size of a basketball, the virus that causes the common cold would be the size of a golf ball. And so on, and so on.

It really makes one feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

I don't. I consider us very important indeed....especially my wife, kids, grandkids, mum, brothers and sister, extended family, friends, local community...etc......because we realise how grand the place we call the Universe is. It really is amazing that we can be amazed!!

Greg

 

[TheOldSchool]

This one's nuts:

 

[ChrisL]

Looking at the link, there isn't really an 'on Jupiter.' There's no solidity to Jupiter, it's just gas. A fascinating fact unto itself though.

One of the collest things I've learned in astronomy is the size of stars. We think of our Sun as being so big when compared to the Earth, but there are stars we know of as big to our Sun as the Earth is to the Sun. The often heard of (perhaps) Dog Star is the biggest we've found thus far.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Rho_Cassiopeiae_Sol_VY_Canis_Majoris.png

Even at fullsize, the Sun to Canis (the Dog star) is little more than a single pixel.)

I've heard that the gas planets are the largest.