Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

we_are_all_bananas_2 t1_j3dumhb wrote

If you put your finger over a star in the sky, you are preventing photons that have travelled to Earth undisturbed for millions of years from finally entering your eye.

21

ontopofyourmom t1_j3e6dol wrote

Most likely hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of years... and that's only from your finger's point of view, for the photon it is just and instant.

1

coreywindom t1_j3e072n wrote

Due to Time Dilation caused by gravity the Earth’s crust is 3 years older than the core.

14

hexadumo t1_j3dt9by wrote

It smells like burned metal. According to astronauts. And before you ask: they can smell it in the airlock after a space walk.

9

emilycellocat t1_j3dy4mo wrote

Why does it smell like this? Is it from our spaceships, or is it the smell of stars combusting?

3

hexadumo t1_j3dz0l5 wrote

From popular science:

“Louis Allamandola, director of the Astrophysics and Astrochemistry Lab at NASA's Ames Research Center, told Popular Science that this smell is due to the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons floating around in space.

These hydrocarbons can be found in "tobacco smoke, car exhaust, and sometimes in heavily browned foods," here on Earth, according to chemist Kevin Boudreaux from Angelo State University.”

Edit: I just read some more about it and an alternate explanation is that the random elements floating in space are reacting to the oxygen pumped into the airlock. They are oxidizing quickly and therefore smell like burned metal.

7

Adeldor t1_j3dv98x wrote

The vastness of space is beyond comprehension, even within our own solar system. So many seem not to understand that. A NASA image which can give an inkling is this one, taken by Voyager 1 of our immediate neighborhood after its Neptune encounter. The Earth and Moon are together smaller than a pixel (the blue one, barely standing out from the noise), so even here our planet's size is exaggerated.

8

Adeldor t1_j3dxowa wrote

While not bothered by downvotes (hover over my username to see my comment karma), I am puzzled why anyone would downvote the comment above. What could possibly be displeasing or wrong about it? Maybe they're just having a bad day. :-)

6

Atalantean t1_j3e15dc wrote

The assumption that it’s beyond comprehension to everyone.

1

Adeldor t1_j3e32br wrote

Within the definition of "comprehension" as "the capacity for understanding fully," I do indeed assert that distances in space fall beyond anyone's full grasp. At an intellectual level, certainly one can discuss such measurements and manipulate devices accordingly, but they fall beyond human intuition and evolutionary experience.

1

Phatcat15 t1_j3e448o wrote

I agree with you. Some people think they can comprehend the universe I guess… 🤷🏼

2

Atalantean t1_j3ee2n7 wrote

You asked, I answered you. And then you did it again.
It's an assumption that no one's comprehension exceeds your own.

1

Adeldor t1_j3ef0wu wrote

I did what again? Disagree with you? I gave some rationale. You gave just an assertion without explanation. My point stands. I'll leave it there.

1

kittens_go_boom t1_j3e1g6d wrote

  1. A Quasar has a super massive blackhole in its center. The beams that radiate from it churn out massive radiation more intense than our sun.

  2. Blue Giants are massive stars...more massive than our sun. They use up their fuel quickly. There is a blue giant in the constellation Orion

  3. Stars can go into Hyper-Nova.

5

FCWeigl t1_j3e3svl wrote

There are more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way.

5

NoTown7618 t1_j3e9s98 wrote

Interesting! If I didn't have Google to verify, I would have thought you were BS ing!

2

cantnameguzy t1_j3dyt8i wrote

Pretty common one but here we go: When you are looking in the sky you always see a picture of the past. The stars are so far away the light traveled million or billions of years. You might see stars that no longer exist.

4

FrostyAcanthocephala t1_j3e0dqh wrote

Space 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 road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.

4

YourWiseOldFriend t1_j3e2yzl wrote

There is an astronaut proverb [per Cmdr. Chris Hadfield] "There is no situation so bad that you can't make it worse."

3

jerk1970 t1_j3dtll6 wrote

Every planet has a different weird orbit, day compared to earth. A day on another planet lasts a couple of earth months.

2

chewie8291 t1_j3dvdwo wrote

The earth and moon are tidal locked because a proto earth and other proto planet collided. Much of the core of the proto planet moved to the earth. The rest formed the moon.

2

super_twis t1_j3e49iz wrote

Would probably be more accurate to say the moon is tidally to the earth. Also, the reason the moon is tidally locked is more to do with the gravitational interaction between the two bodies rather than its origin.

3

super_twis t1_j3e4o8h wrote

Pinching some from cgp grey:

  • if the sun went supernova and you donated a nuclear bomb in front of your face, the supernova would still be brighter
  • a supernova is so big even the neutrino flux at earth-sun distance would be lethal
2

magnitudearhole t1_j3e5aiy wrote

So light from say Betelgeuse takes about 620 years to reach us as you know. But due to the time dilation of travelling at relativistic speeds from the point of view of the photon the journey is near instantaneous. Wangs all the way from Betelgeuse smack bang into my retina in the blink of an eye.

2

lndianJoe t1_j3e8oye wrote

Space is technically not cold. Temperature is a state of the matter, space being virtually empty of matter is neither hot nor cold.

2

Emergency-Step9618 t1_j3eau4s wrote

there’s a large area in the universe called the bootes void which for some reason has only a few galaxies discovered within it, even though its diameter is about 330 million light years :0

2

ThePhoenixBird2022 t1_j3dz6bf wrote

The closest planet to Earth is Mercury. Something to do with orbit speeds around the sun.

In a linear drawing it's Venus, but Venus spends more time behind the sun compared to Mercury or something like that.

1

poiqwe2 t1_j3e0xd7 wrote

CGP Grey has a great video on this. Not only is Mercury the closest planet to Earth, but it's the closest planet to every other planet in the Solar System. The definition they showcase in their video is a time-average of the distance, since obviously the Earth can be much closer to Venus and Mars at any given moment than to Mercury - but those planets also spend much longer at the opposite end of the Solar System.

1

onlycodeposts t1_j3e9pqe wrote

I wonder if this holds true for the innermost planet of all solar systems because of orbital mechanics.

3

poiqwe2 t1_j3ecram wrote

Yeah that's interesting. I'm really curious about a binary system with a wide separation, which might allow for multiple planets around both stars (though from basic googling this seems exceptionally rare). The mechanics of that system would be fascinating. Also imagine if there was life on some of those planets... what kind of cultural artifacts would come up surrounding the interactions between all those planets.

1

Phatcat15 t1_j3e3riv wrote

There are more galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on earth… that one always blew my mind.

1

hometown77garden t1_j3efxiu wrote

The atoms in your eye are more than the stars in the milky way

1