Here's a bit of perspective for you.

delanvital · June 27, 2008, 10:32:07 AM

Quote from: Carr0t;235686Our Uni has a poster on one of it's walls in a fairly random building. IIRC it's labelled 'Proxima Centauri'. Basically, some school in America wanted to make a scale model of our solar system. They placed the Sun towards the centre of their school. I believe it was several feet across (possibly a poster covering one entire wall, i've never seen it). Planets were distributed in buildings throughout the town the school was in. For our nearest start, a teacher and several of the students travelled all the way to the UK, so that they could put up a poster of our nearest star at the correctly scaled distance

Quite cool, I thought.

That IS cool.

Jabbs · June 27, 2008, 03:51:53 PM

Quote from: delanvital;235695That IS cool.

Very cool, or probably very hot actually.

Thanks for raising this Pen, I love this stuff

Karrde · June 28, 2008, 03:53:24 PM

That is awesome.

Makes you wonder how big space is in totality and if you did know you probably couldn't even get your head round it.

All I know about space is that our galaxy itself contains 100 billion stars; it's 100,000 light-years side-to-side. It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light-years thick. But out by us it's just 3000 light-years wide. We're 30,000 light-years from galactic central point;we go round every 200 million years. And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe!

Etc...

Doorman · June 28, 2008, 05:22:35 PM

Quote from: 'Karrde[dg;235885']That is awesome.

Makes you wonder how big space is in totality and if you did know you probably couldn't even get your head round it.

All I know about space is that our galaxy itself contains 100 billion stars; it's 100,000 light-yearsside-to-side. It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light-years thick. But out by us it's just 3000 light-years wide. We're 30,000 light-years from galactic central point;we go round every 200 million years. And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe!

Etc...

What's on the outside of it? :norty:

Anonymous · June 28, 2008, 05:38:41 PM

Quote from: Doorman;235891What's on the outside of it? :norty:

stuff!

A 4 year Honours degree in Astrophysics wasn't a waste of time after all

Jabbs · June 28, 2008, 05:47:56 PM

Quote from: BlueBall;235896stuff!

A 4 year Honours degree in Astrophysics wasn't a waste of time after all

BB knows whats outside the universe! After all he was the one who put it there while noone was looking! :norty: :blink:

Karrde · June 28, 2008, 06:53:09 PM

Bubblewrap.

You wouldn't want someone damaging the universe by accident

Doorman · June 28, 2008, 07:03:47 PM

Quote from: 'Karrde[dg;235903']Bubblewrap.

You wouldn't want someone damaging the universe by accident

I love it when subjects get down to the nitty gritty.

delanvital · June 28, 2008, 08:14:21 PM

f@h-like, non-seti, approach finds something interesting:

http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=11614176

Aquilifer · June 28, 2008, 08:33:56 PM

Quote from: BlueBall;235896stuff!

A 4 year Honours degree in Astrophysics wasn't a waste of time after all

Quote from: delanvitallink --->
"...a message on the zooâ€™s forum about some strange blue stuff she had spotted"

BlueBall was right!. It is stuff out there...and also blue!!!

Snokio · July 06, 2008, 02:25:19 PM

In relation to each other, I don't suppose you have an illustration of that as well?

T-Bag · July 06, 2008, 04:37:21 PM

Quote from: Doorman;235891What's on the outside of it? :norty:

Dark energy?
Doing a particle physics and cosmology course taught me if you're not sure what it is and you can't see it call it dark. So because the gravity of a galaxy doesn't add up they say there is 75% Dark Matter. Dark energy comes about strangely too something about a density of -1. Anyway if it's not something you can see just guess it's one of these dark things.
...I should really pay more attention in uni.