An image from Hubble

[Winter]

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/96664main_galaxy_string_4.jpg

[CrockD]

It just needs a little "You are here" pin on it.:D

[atomicbob]

That's awesome. The universe is so freakin big. Literally boggles my mind every time I try and visualize it!

[Crotch-Rot]

And to think that we're the only life in the universe is just pure narrow-mindedness.

[CrockD]

"Space," it says, "is big. REALLY big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the street to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.
-The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

As for life outside our solar system...I'm with you Crotch. With 400 billion stars in our galaxy and approximately 400 billion galaxies the math seems pretty simple.

[Crotch-Rot]

Where's that StarGate when you need one?

[CrockD]

Unfortunately General O'Neill lost it, however MacGuyver can make you a new one if you can spare a rubber hose, 3 crocodile clips, a bicycle seat and a roll of knitting yarn.

[Tykwer]

you'd better hope that other life is within the local group or we might have a little problem ever witnessing it. i hope that, if there is life, we never find it - it's better off with out us.

[Crotch-Rot]

I'm still hoping for hot female aliens who are looking for men to repopulate their civilization. :D

[Tykwer]

wouldn't that be considered bestiality, since they wouldn't be out species :dunno:

[SLCoran]

Crotch has the Capt. Kirk Syndrome.
that is a really nice pic, and I hadn't seen that one yet! I pay close attention to the new discoveries in the Universe. I believe I may even be able to find the estimated size.

[SLCoran]

Yep, found it.


http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060807_mm_huble_revise.html


Scientists now estimate the universe to be about 13.7 billion years old (a figure that has seemed firm since 2003, based on measurements of radiation leftover from the Big Bang) and about 156 billion light-years wide.

The Milky Way is only 100,000 Light Years across.

A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, moving at 186,000 miles per second.

[Winter]

Scientists now estimate the universe to be about 13.7 billion years old (a figure that has seemed firm since 2003, based on measurements of radiation leftover from the Big Bang)...

To put it in a different perspective, we can see light left over from the big bang as far as 13.7 billion light years in the distance of space.

[puffle_cakes]

mmmmmmm hot aliens with tentacles:lol:

[Gruthar]

Here are some of my favorite Hubble images (linked so I don't make a giant page.)

Stellar Spire
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Stellar_spire_eagle_nebula.jpg

Orion Deep Field
http://i5.caedes.net/images/resize/1071x669/philcUK-1173303372.jpg

More Orion
http://i5.caedes.net/images/resize/1280x1024/philcUK-1164143569.jpg

Seven Sisters
http://i5.caedes.net/images/resize/1280x1024/philcUK-1109004276.jpg

[SLCoran]

I'm bored so I tried to calculate the distances.
Light travels 5,865,696,000,000 miles a year.
The Milky Way is 5,865,696,000,000,000,000 miles wide.
The Universe is 915,048,576,000,000,000,000,000 miles wide.
And that's if I did the math right.

[kilroy0097]

My mind has a hard time wrapping itself around that picture. Just the sheer number of solar systems inside each of those galaxies seen in that picture. And to think there are even more than those out there. It's just too large to even grasp the concept of Universe.

[GroovyDude]

Did you guys know that hubble photos are actually in b/w and are colored by NASA before release?

[SLCoran]

Yes I did.

[Winter]

Did you guys know that hubble photos are actually in b/w and are colored by NASA before release?

NASA accurately colors the images, though. It's as good as authentic.

[sir_digalot]

you all know that is a load of cobblers coz the universe is only 6000 years old.... it says so on authority ;)

i do not think the universe is very big, think it is very small and almost infinitesimally short lived, but, we are so much smaller it seems big... also we created the universe in an experiment... which means it already has ended, we just don't know it yet

pretty picture though

[SLCoran]

you all know that is a load of cobblers coz the universe is only 6000 years old.... it says so on authority ;)

i do not think the universe is very big, think it is very small and almost infinitesimally short lived, but, we are so much smaller it seems big... also we created the universe in an experiment... which means it already has ended, we just don't know it yet

pretty picture though

What?

[Ichi]

Crotch has the Capt. Kirk Syndrome.
that is a really nice pic, and I hadn't seen that one yet! I pay close attention to the new discoveries in the Universe. I believe I may even be able to find the estimated size.


I think he is more the Zapp Branigan then Kirk.

http://www.forumopolis.com/image.php?u=1397&dateline=1139966183

[SLCoran]

Roflmao