Our staggering Universe

[Abbey Marie]

http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2012/hubbleseesco.jpg




Credit: ESA/NASA

(Phys.org)—This dazzling image shows the globular cluster Messier 69, or
M 69 for short, as viewed through the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Globular clusters are dense collections of old stars. In this picture,
foreground stars look big and golden when set against the backdrop of
the thousands of white, silvery stars that make up M 69.
...
Read more at phys.org

[Thunderknuckles]

I've gazed at M69 through both telescope and binoculars more times than I care to remember. I was a huge astronomy nerd growing up :)

On a clear summer night ,grab yourself a decent pair of 10x50 binoculars and train them on the constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpio and you will find a number of little gems just like this one!

[Drummond]

I've gazed at M69 through both telescope and binoculars more times than I care to remember. I was a huge astronomy nerd growing up :)

On a clear summer night ,grab yourself a decent pair of 10x50 binoculars and train them on the constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpio and you will find a number of little gems just like this one!

To an extent .. I can say the same.

But we're in an ever-more interesting era of Universal exploration these days. Probes sent out to learn about the Solar System (not forgetting the Voyager one, now reaching beyond the Solar System and into interstellar space) ... to the more semi-theoretical side, which is concerned with discovering, and measuring, Dark Matter.

We've never quite made such advances as I think we're on the threshhold of achieving.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

To an extent .. I can say the same.

But we're in an ever-more interesting era of Universal exploration these days. Probes sent out to learn about the Solar System (not forgetting the Voyager one, now reaching beyond the Solar System and into interstellar space) ... to the more semi-theoretical side, which is concerned with discovering, and measuring, Dark Matter.

We've never quite made such advances as I think we're on the threshhold of achieving.

At least once a week every week I do a google search on New space discoveries or New discoveries in the Universe. I've been doing these well over a decade now. THE KNOWN UNIVERSE HAS NOW BEEN FOUND TO BE AT LEAST 20% LARGER THAN THOUGHT TO BE BEFORE. THE NUMBER OF GALAXIES , STARS AND PLANETS HAS BEEN ADMITTED TO BE FAR GREATER THAN ESTIMATED PREVIOUSLY.
MAN IS TO LIMITED TO EVER KNOW VERY MUCH ABOUT OUR UNIVERSE AND THAT IS NOT EVEN INCLUDING INNER SPACE AND OTHER DIMENSIONS.--Tyr

[Drummond]

At least once a week every week I do a google search on New space discoveries or New discoveries in the Universe. I've been doing these well over a decade now. THE KNOWN UNIVERSE HAS NOW BEEN FOUND TO BE AT LEAST 20% LARGER THAN THOUGHT TO BE BEFORE. THE NUMBER OF GALAXIES , STARS AND PLANETS HAS BEEN ADMITTED TO BE FAR GREATER THAN ESTIMATED PREVIOUSLY.
MAN IS TO LIMITED TO EVER KNOW VERY MUCH ABOUT OUR UNIVERSE AND THAT IS NOT EVEN INCLUDING INNER SPACE AND OTHER DIMENSIONS.--Tyr

.. yes. I watched a science programme recently, in which it was estimated that the Universe is 13.7 billion years old.

Even more interesting, though, is the Dark Matter debate. It's said that the Universe's expansion can't be explained away (.. if I've understood this correctly ?) by only what we've been able to observe. Theory has it that only the existence of Dark Matter, and for it to exist in far greater quantities than regular ('known') matter, can explain what we've been observing about the Universe's movement.

[Anton Chigurh]

"Life is just a collection of memories. And memories are like starlight - they go on forever..."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFGMMmX843w

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

.. yes. I watched a science programme recently, in which it was estimated that the Universe is 13.7 billion years old.

Even more interesting, though, is the Dark Matter debate. It's said that the Universe's expansion can't be explained away (.. if I've understood this correctly ?) by only what we've been able to observe. Theory has it that only the existence of Dark Matter, and for it to exist in far greater quantities than regular ('known') matter, can explain what we've been observing about the Universe's movement.



http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/bigbang.html

The Big Bang and the Expansion of the UniverseThe universe we live in is expanding. We know this because we see galaxies and groups of galaxies steadily moving apart in the universe. This expansion has been occuring since the universe was formed 14 billion years ago in a very hot, dense event known as the Big Bang.
Here are six Frequently Asked Questions about our expanding universe:
(1) Where is the center of the Universe?There no centre of the universe because there is no edge of the universe. In a finite universe, space is curved so that if you could travel billions of light years in a straight line you would eventually finish back where you started. It is also possible that our universe is infinite. In both examples, groups of galaxies completely fill the universe and are moving apart at all points making the universe expand (see question 2).
http://www.debatepolicy.com/tinyspace.gif
An example of a very small universe containing only 48 stars. A spaceship flying among these stars cannot find the edge of this universe. If the ship exits on one side of the universe it reemerges on the other side. The people in the spaceship see an infinite number of stars all around them. This universe has no boundary and no centre.
(2) Where did the Big Bang occur in the Universe?There is a common assumption that the Big Bang was an explosion that occured in empty space and that the explosion expanded into the empty space. This is wrong.
Space and time were created in the Big Bang. At the beginning of the universe, the space was completely filled with matter. The matter was originally very hot and very dense and then expanded and cooled to eventually produce the stars and galaxies we see in the universe today.
http://www.debatepolicy.com/bigbang.gif
Although space may have been concentrated into a single point at the Big Bang, it is equally possible that space was infinite at the Big Bang. In both scenarios the space was completely filled with matter which began to expand.


There is no centre of the expansion, the universe is simply expanding at all points. Observers in any galaxy see most of the other galaxies in the universe moving away from them.
The only answer to the question "Where did the Big Bang happen?" is that it occured everywhere in the Universe.
(3) Is the Earth expanding with the universe?The Earth is not expanding and neither is the solar system, nor the Milky Way galaxy. These objects formed under the influence of gravity and stopped moving apart. Gravity also holds galaxies together into groups and clusters. It is mainly the groups and clusters of galaxies that are moving apart in the universe.
(4) What exists outside the universe?Space was created in the Big Bang. Our universe has no edge or boundary - there is no outside of our universe (see question 1). It is possible that our universe is part of an infinity of universes (see question 5), but these universes do not necessarily need a space to exist in.

[Marcus Aurelius]

At the beginning of the universe, the space was completely filled with matter...

which came from??????

[mundame]

which came from??????


What an awkward question. :laugh:

Here's another:

Why is there something instead of nothing?


Here's another: how do we KNOW what happened at the beginning of the universe? And are we sure? And is being sure the same thing as Truth?




[sigh]

[Marcus Aurelius]

What an awkward question. :laugh:

Here's another:

Why is there something instead of nothing?


Here's another: how do we KNOW what happened at the beginning of the universe? And are we sure? And is being sure the same thing as Truth?




[sigh]

I don't personally doubt the prevailing theories as to the origin of the universe as we know it. I simply question where everything that 'became' the universe came from.

Lawrence M. Krauss wrote a book that supposedly proves once and for all that 'something', could indeed have come from 'nothing', due to the laws of quantum mechanics. However, he seems to fall a little flat, as he cannot definitively state where the laws of quantum mechanics came from. He just 'assumes' they were always there.

[mundame]

Lawrence M. Krauss wrote a book that supposedly proves once and for all that 'something', could indeed have come from 'nothing', due to the laws of quantum mechanics. However, he seems to fall a little flat, as he cannot definitively state where the laws of quantum mechanics came from. He just 'assumes' they were always there.


Yeah, I'll bet he does. Why not?

You know, the government pays astrophysicists for this sort of thinking: best paid fairystories anywhere, anywhen.

I wonder where the SPACE to hold the universe came from.....


My favorite story on this is one told by the Zenist Janwillem van der Wettering, from when he was a little boy, and he kept asking what is on the other side after the Universe ends, and what's after THAT ---

And his grandmother said that when you come to the end of the Universe, it's papered all over with old Amsterdam newspapers and that's how you know it's the end.

And he was satisfied.

[Missileman]

http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2012/hubbleseesco.jpg




Credit: ESA/NASA

(Phys.org)—This dazzling image shows the globular cluster Messier 69, or
M 69 for short, as viewed through the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Globular clusters are dense collections of old stars. In this picture,
foreground stars look big and golden when set against the backdrop of
the thousands of white, silvery stars that make up M 69.
...
Read more at phys.org

This has got to be my favorite all time space pic...the scale is mind-blowing!

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