
The extent of the known Universe [video] - neya
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/universe/
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xd
Whenever I hear someone talking about the scale of the universe I just can't
help but bang on about the Hubble ultra deep field picture:
<http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/07>

If you can look at this picture and "get it", it will blow your mind. It's no
wonder people call it the most important picture humanity has ever taken.

~~~
zerohp
I usually think of the Pale Blue Dot photograph.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot>

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slug
The _scale_ of the universe: <http://htwins.net/scale2/>

~~~
iwwr
The estimated size of the universe beyond the visible part is at most a guess.
It could be infinite. This would mean that even at the time of the big bang
there was a lot of volume, just very high energy density.

What we do know is that the part universe we live in has an event horizon. We
can see distant objects as they looked in the past. The distance to those
objects may be as much as 40-50bn light years now, due to the expansion of
space.

And if we ventured to travel, even at the speed of light, there are sections
of the universe visible now that will fall out of view, and we therefore never
reach. If the universe is accelerating, the region of possible travel will
shrink.

So we have a so-called "visible universe", a region we can observe or directly
infer the effects of. Then there is the "accessible universe", the region we
could travel in at the speed of light. All this embedded in a presumably
larger, but inaccessible universe.

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joell
<http://htwins.net/scale2/scale2.swf?bordercolor=white>

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darxius
It's amazing to see exactly what we've been able to achieve. I never though we
knew THAT much about our Universe. I would shake the hand of everyone who
helped make it happen if I could.

Also, I don't understand how you can look at how many planets there are and
still say that it is impossible for there to be any intelligent life in the
Universe.

~~~
richworks
“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in
the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”

\- Calvin & Hobbes

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ck2
Now imagine the theory of ultra-massive black holes creating white-holes on
the other side, essentially our "big bang", and that each one is creating
another universe just like this one.

Repeating probably like a fractal where we are just a point the tree.
Staggering.

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joering2
Thank you so much for sharing this!

I sent it to some friends that keep saying "we are the only one in universe"
and they keep quiet now, lol!

Look at this and think about one small planet (Earth) and only on it you have
six billion human-beings and every each of them has its own world...

Watching how many billions of light years we need to "get out" is pretty sad
at some point. I hope Gates would say "we will never need to travel with the
speed of a light" :) </joke>

~~~
neya
Yes, I agree with you, I share the same view too. Just imagine the
possibilities..Even if you did a simple probability math, the answer would be
obvious - You're not alone.

~~~
MrScruff
I'm not sure how probability math would help you, since we have no way of
estimating the probability of intelligent life spontaneously occurring outside
of our sample size of 1.

What if the probability was 1x10^-80 ?

~~~
neya
Hah..I was thinking of something even simpler - Lets assume for simplicity,
there is only one habitable planet in the entire Milkyway galaxy, Earth. And
there are 'y' number of planets in Milkyway in total. Then, the probability of
finding a habitable planet (Earth) in such a galaxy is 1/y. We know that the
Milkyway isn't the only galaxy. Let there be totally 'z' no. of galaxies in
this universe. Let the percentage of them being a galaxy like Milkyway (where
there is a probability of finding a habitable planet) be 'x'. So there
exists'x' percent of 'Z' number of Galaxies that _may_ have 1 habitable planet
each. Mathematically, thats (x/100) _z. Honestly, analyzing (1/y) for each
galaxy in (x/100)_ z should lead you to believe that there exist intelligent
life forms apart from just earth. That's such a large number to ignore and it
would not be appropriate to say that there exists only one planet, Earth with
intelligent life form. I'm not saying this is correct, I'm just justifying
what my logic tells me - There's a large chance that there are intelligent
life forms elsewhere in the Universe. Why? Because, we are a living example
part of the same Universe, so there's no reason why there couldn't be others
like us.

~~~
joering2
+1. Good read, thanks. I actually wonder if we would ever make that contact
(whether we or they) I wonder if they would be more advanced or less. Lets
assume more - then it would be interesting to see if it took them more time to
come up with solutions to certain problems we facing, and R&D of hard stuff
like anti-gravity, etc. And then, even more interesting, how fast would our
world change and what kind of implication on an average Joe would it had, if
they would agree on sharing all those "secrets". It would be like putting
entire human kind on fast forward into year 2,500. Imagine someone handing you
a recipe book: Chapter 1. how to travel faster than light; Chapter 2. how to
teleport goods and living organisms; 3. how to grow safe food loaded five
times more with nutritions; Chapter 4. how to generate electricity without
harming environment; Chapter 5. how to extend human life up to 250 years.
Chapter 6. how to peacefully transform world into more friendly place :)

~~~
neya
I'm not sure if this would interest you, but there are some theories suggest
that you can "use" your mind to travel through the universe, faster than the
speed of light, you can also "use" your mind to slow down time, travel through
time and also slow down your ageing process. Before I say anything, let me
make it clear that I'm neither being biased towards nor am I trying to promote
any religion, I just want to share whatever I've read so far - There are many
REAL Hindu saints (not the ones on TV) who advocate this theory, they say that
death is something that should not be taken for granted, rather you should
fight against it (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramalinga_Swamigal>).
According to them, your life-span depends on the rate at which you breathe -
the slower you breathe, the longer you live. Many saints in Hindu mythology,
have lived in terms of multiples of hundreds of years. Many books even say
there are archaeological evidences to support these facts. But honestly, I've
never taken the pains to find out citations for them. nevertheless, its always
interesting to read such stuff.

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mrleinad
So much left to explore.. So beautiful..

BTW, the name of the planetarium reminded me at first of Hadden. If you've
read Contact, you'll understand what that name means.

~~~
Craiggybear
We haven't even started exploring anything. Not even our own planet.

In universe or galactic terms we simply don't even register.

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feefie
I feel so lowbrow, but sometimes a catchy toon that appeals to a wide audience
can convey more than one might imagine:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_J5rBxeTIk>

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draggnar
Why is the current furthest mapping not in all directions? Is that because of
the north and south poles?

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siavosh
Can someone explain why there are large sections of the universe that are
unmapped?

~~~
RomP
Obscured, mostly by our own galaxy.

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joering2
since we are on the "space" subject and I dont feel its worth new HN thread,
but same time would love to pick up your brain; what do we see here? dust on a
lenses???

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjjftMK2HHM>

appreciate your comments

