The universe.

[tarnok]

Re: The universe.

when have they begun sending those signals and how much time till they finally escape the galaxy?

The first radio transmission was some time around the turn of the twentieth century, so take the distance from earth to the closest edge of our galaxy, divide by the speed of light and add that many years to 1900 and you'll be close enough.

 

[Tanooki]

Re: The universe.

I cannot believe it.

All these years playing on the OTF, and I finally learned something new, and actually interesting.

Radio waves travel at the speed of light. I just assumed it was somewhere between the speed of sound and the speed of light.

 

[Dondrei]

Re: The universe.

Well radio waves are just another frequency of light, so they travel at that speed. Depending on the medium that is.

when have they begun sending those signals and how much time till they finally escape the galaxy?

The galaxy is 100,000 lightyears in diameter and we're about halfway out along its axis. So about 25,000 years.

 

[tarnok]

Re: The universe.

Well radio waves are just another frequency of light, so they travel at that speed. Depending on the medium that is.

To put it another way, visible light is just one part of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation as are radio frequencies. Anytime someone is talking about electromagnetic radiation, they're just talking about some wavelength of light.

 

[lAmebAdger]

Re: The universe.

and god said: "let there be light!"

...from what i've observed, most people seem to want to narrow the definition of "light" down to the visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation... not sure if i should go for the definition that's popular among scientists or the one of the common people...
to each their own

 

[Ariadne]

Re: The universe.

To me its like an extremely addictive though that i get two or three times a year. Something will make me start thinking about the universe, and then i will sit at the computer for hours and hours just looking things up, trying to see if anything makes sense.

Even though it wont happen, i hope we make sense of it all in our lifetime. Its just one of those things that i HAVE to know.

Is anyone else like this?

a bit. Due to my restrictions, looking things up isn't any help for me usually. I try to fit things in my head and always forget I can't. Sometimes it's like I'm just about to understand everything about the universe and then it slips away. Odd.
I never bother with radiowaves, it's tech stuff which I leave to the boys. Breaking the large Hadron collider was enough for me last year.

 

[lAmebAdger]

Re: The universe.

when you can avoid the tech stuff while thinking about the universe, that's when you're most likely to make any sense out of it

 

[Ariadne]

Re: The universe.

when you can avoid the tech stuff while thinking about the universe, that's when you're most likely to make any sense out of it

It's not working so far. But sometimes it looks like I'm about to understand it. Aaargh.

Leaving out the tech stuff is even easier after last weeks QI from which I have learned that the sound of the doors in both Star Wars and Star Trek have been made by sliding paper in and out a fairly large envelope.

 

[mince pies]

Re: The universe.

To me its like an extremely addictive though that i get two or three times a year. Something will make me start thinking about the universe, and then i will sit at the computer for hours and hours just looking things up, trying to see if anything makes sense.

Even though it wont happen, i hope we make sense of it all in our lifetime. Its just one of those things that i HAVE to know.

Is anyone else like this?

Exactly how it is for me

 

[HegemonKhan]

Re: The universe.

radio waves actually travel slightly less than the speed of light. as what what "light" in the speed of "light" is actually refering to (light=energy/waves=radiation=electromagnetic spectrum= background radiation, gamma rays, x-rays, UV rays, "visable light" or "colors", Infra Red light or "heat", micro waves, radio waves), i don't even know myself (except i know radio waves don't travel at the speed of light and i'm sure the "blinding light" from an explosion reaches u before the infra red or "heat" does. so infra red or "heat", i'm pretty sure is slower than the speed of light). i have NO idea what type of light that the light in the speed of light is refering to.
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as to the vastness of space (and all the "stuff" in it),

i am actually NOT surprised or "mind boggled".

i'm NOT surprised that "nothingness" has all that room for space/universe/multiverse/stars/galaxies/etc "stuff" to expand into

since when does "nothingness" have a limit on its size ?

"nothingness" is limitLESS, that is why space/universe/stars/galaxies can be so big and so far apart. i'm not surprised at all.
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to clarify the terms i use, in case there's any science geeks like me:

*do NOT read this if not a science geek, as it will probably be confusing and "lose" u, since u have no idea what it is talking about*

space("outerspace")=universe (created by "big bang" and "inflation" theories)

"nothingness"=whatever "this" was before the big bang occured

"nothingness" is NOT = to space ("outerspace"). two completely different things. space is in simple terms said to be nothing, but my "nothingness" is something different than the nothing of space. i use "nothingness" to describe the "state of whatever is there" before the universe/multiverse/big bang/inflation/dimensions or what the universe/multiverse/big bang/inflation/dimensions is a part of or in or what is outside the universe/multiverse/big bang/inflation/dimensions.
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in terms of the importance of space or why people study space and theoretical stuff debate:

dreamers and do'ers

a "do'er" is some one who does work. they go and build a house. they build roads, cars, buildings, bridges. they tackle and solve imediate problems. they are the practical people. politicians trying to solve the U.S. house crisis or the world's economic crisis. soldiers fighting for their country. etc...

a "dreamer" is some who likes to think and "dream" and wonder. they are lost in the thought itself. what's possible. the mysteries of the universe. al for he sake of the thought/knowledge itself. they do NOT care about putting it to use. they jsut want to "KNOW" everything there is to "KNOW". "knowledge addicts". people who want to know, to know it all, to know everything, to know more and more and more to know.

who cares that black holes are actually preserving existance instead of devouring it, when our lpanet earth and us humans have an ecomonic crisis, when u can't even get a job and buy a house or even put food on the table.

some people actually are more interested about black holes than helping people get a job on earth. and some care more about getting a job than about what black holes will do in hundreds/thousands of cosmic eons from now.

"NASA"/space problems VS earth problems

earth or space, which is more pressing/important ?

people who look far head or people who look directly in front of them.

people who are concerned about the person only 1 foot away with a gun pointed at them or people who are concerned about a sniper a mile away with a gun pointed at them.

here's a different persepctive from/using sports which may make more sense to people:

coaches/players who think about the championships that they haven't even qualified for yet or coaches/players who just wanna win that game tonight so that they will qualify and be in the chamionships.

dreamers and do'ers

 

[lAmebAdger]

Re: The universe.

radio waves actually travel slightly less than the speed of light. as what what "light" in the speed of "light" is actually refering to (light=energy/waves=radiation=electromagnetic spectrum= background radiation, gamma rays, x-rays, UV rays, "visable light" or "colors", Infra Red light or "heat", micro waves, radio waves), i don't even know myself (except i know radio waves don't travel at the speed of light and i'm sure the "blinding light" from an explosion reaches u before the infra red or "heat" does. so infra red or "heat", i'm pretty sure is slower than the speed of light). i have NO idea what type of light that the light in the speed of light is refering to.

the standard physicist will tell you: radio waves are a form of light and therefore travel at the speed of light. heat is merely kinetic energy, nothing else.

as to the vastness of space (and all the "stuff" in it),

i am actually NOT surprised or "mind boggled".

i'm NOT surprised that "nothingness" has all that room for space/universe/multiverse/stars/galaxies/etc "stuff" to expand into

since when does "nothingness" have a limit on its size ?

"nothingness" is limitLESS, that is why space/universe/stars/galaxies can be so big and so far apart. i'm not surprised at all.

that kinda makes you feel small and is therefore mind-boggling to people

to clarify the terms i use, in case there's any science geeks like me:

if you can consider yourself to be one then i am utterly lost as to what a science geek actually is

*do NOT read this if not a science geek, as it will probably be confusing and "lose" u, since u have no idea what it is talking about*

1. don't look down on people 2. this warning should've come a lot sooner, if it indeed is one

 

[plasmo]

Re: The universe.

Pale blue dot, Carl Sagan voiceover

Original from Voyager 1

Redone by Cassini

Carl Sagan:

"Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

 

[HegemonKhan]

Re: The universe.

the standard physicist will tell you: radio waves are a form of light and therefore travel at the speed of light. heat is merely kinetic energy, nothing else.



that kinda makes you feel small and is therefore mind-boggling to people



if you can consider yourself to be one then i am utterly lost as to what a science geek actually is



1. don't look down on people 2. this warning should've come a lot sooner, if it indeed is one

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the standard physicist will tell you: radio waves are a form of light and therefore travel at the speed of light. heat is merely kinetic energy, nothing else. -iamebadger

radio waves that are being blasted out of black holes (which means the radio wave is moving even faster than it normally does) is near the speed of light, yet still less than it.

"heat" = infra red=energy/radiation.

the entire electromagentic spectrum is energy/radiation (back ground radiation, gamma rays, x-rays, UV rays, visible light, infra red="heat", micro waves, radio waves), but i was wrong to say it is also light (i messed up with this) since i don't know what light is. well...i know light can be a collection of different forms of energy, but not what light itself actually is. maybe light has nothing to do with or is not any of these: back ground radiation, gamma rays, x-rays, UV rays, visible light, infra red="heat", micro waves, radio waves. i'm getting more confused now as i think about it. so i'ma stop there. in short, i don't know what light is, besides "partical' ly" being a photon.
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if you can consider yourself to be one then i am utterly lost as to what a science geek actually is. -iamebadger

i don't know what your saying with this, so i don't know how to respond to it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. don't look down on people 2. this warning should've come a lot sooner, if it indeed is one. iamebadger

my apologies, i never ment that to seem or be condescending, i guess i "worded it" wrong. merely ment to warn people that the below reading requires u to already be familiar with it, for u to folow along.
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plasmo,

that passage is definately right for that sci-fi world of startrek/voyager, but until real life, humanity, and the universe becomes like this sci-fi world, earth is much more important than it is in the sci-fi world of startrek/voyager.

IRL, there's no federation, no other life forms like klingons or whoever, no space travel/exploration, and etc.. that we know as star trek/voyager

 

[ffejrxx]

Re: The universe.

different frequencies of light (radiation) travel at different speed when going through a medium
space is no medium, all frequencies travel at the same speed in space

heat is a form of radiation

your thinking pulsars, they transmit streams of radiation, black holes produce hawking radiation

 

[HegemonKhan]

Re: The universe.

hmm, it sounds right, so u could be right (too lazy to look up stuff), but i'm pretty sure both quasars AND blackholes shoot out radiowaves ("death beams" because anything in it's path is "fried/vaporized").

this hawking radiation u speak of might be what the black hole it self produces, but i'm talking about the jets shooting out perpendicular to the black hole "disk" of matter-energy being pulled into it. i'm pretty sure these jets are also radio waves like quasars jet off too. but i could be wrong. though i'm confident it is radio waves.

 

[llad12]

Re: The universe.

Never forget ... we are all made of star stuff. :alright:

 

[HegemonKhan]

Re: The universe.

Never forget ... we are all made of star stuff. -llad12

not jsut made out of star stuff, but rather:

we truly are "children of the stars"

 

[tarnok]

Re: The universe.

the entire electromagentic spectrum is energy/radiation (back ground radiation, gamma rays, x-rays, UV rays, visible light, infra red="heat", micro waves, radio waves), but i was wrong to say it is also light (i messed up with this) since i don't know what light is. well...i know light can be a collection of different forms of energy, but not what light itself actually is. maybe light has nothing to do with or is not any of these: back ground radiation, gamma rays, x-rays, UV rays, visible light, infra red="heat", micro waves, radio waves. i'm getting more confused now as i think about it. so i'ma stop there. in short, i don't know what light is, besides "partical' ly" being a photon.

"Light" to most people will mean the particular slice of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to human eyes. Usually when a scientist talks about light though, he is making a statement that is meant to apply to the whole electromagnetic spectrum.

If by asking what light is you mean what is it physically, that's a bit tougher to answer. EM radiation is formed from an alternating electrical field and magnetic field, each inducing the other in sequence. The energy required to produce this effect can apparently only occur in certain amounts or quanta so these waves also behave like particles which we call photons. Don't ask which it is because as far as we can tell it's both.

 

[ffejrxx]

Re: The universe.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/280046main_CassAcomposite_HI.jpg

 

[HAMC8112]

Re: The universe.

It's things like that that make my mind explode.

Is that not dangerous?