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petersohn from Earth, Solar System (Long Runner) Relationship Status: Hiding
#11476: Jul 7th 2015 at 12:38:56 AM

[up]Huh. We can detect exoplanets but not comets at the edge of our Solar System.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.
Adannor from effin' belarus Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
#11477: Jul 7th 2015 at 12:42:02 AM

We detect exoplanets by examining the minute variations of shine of the stars behind them. Oort Cloud comets are way too far away from any stars, including ours, to be visible.

petersohn from Earth, Solar System (Long Runner) Relationship Status: Hiding
#11478: Jul 7th 2015 at 12:43:50 AM

I wonder how many large objects are flying around in interstellar space that are undetectable by our telescopes.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.
Adannor from effin' belarus Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
#11479: Jul 7th 2015 at 12:51:49 AM

It's space. It's BEYOND huge. A number of them can be both immensely big if you take it straight but also immeasurably tiny if you take it in proportion to the rest of the emptiness of interstellar.

petersohn from Earth, Solar System (Long Runner) Relationship Status: Hiding
#11480: Jul 7th 2015 at 2:20:44 AM

I like this image to illustrate how big space really is.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.
Adannor from effin' belarus Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
#11481: Jul 7th 2015 at 3:47:04 AM

And it severely under represents the distances on the star neighbourhood scale by making stars on it too huge.

Numbers could work better I think. Milky Way along contains 300 (+/- 100) BILLIONS of stars.

The observable universe estimate is in the magnitude of 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 stars.

edited 7th Jul '15 3:47:16 AM by Adannor

petersohn from Earth, Solar System (Long Runner) Relationship Status: Hiding
#11482: Jul 7th 2015 at 4:23:09 AM

I think that numbers this large are harder to conceive than figures, even if they are off-scale by a few orders of magnitudes. It doesn't help that "billion" means different thing in different languages.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.
spashthebandragon thebandragoness from USA Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
thebandragoness
GeekCodeRed Did you know this section has a character limit? from A, A, B, B, A Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Did you know this section has a character limit?
#11484: Jul 7th 2015 at 6:33:24 AM

HGTTG. Hitchhiker, not Hitch Hiker.

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#11485: Jul 7th 2015 at 6:36:49 AM

Oh, no, not this again. It's often written "H2G2", which is an initialism for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
spashthebandragon thebandragoness from USA Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
thebandragoness
#11486: Jul 7th 2015 at 6:42:26 AM

Actually, I think calling the road to the chemist's "peanuts to space" isn't being hyperbolic enough. It's more like dust mites to space. Maybe even smaller than that.

I've got fanfics for Frozen, Spectacular Spider-Man, Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro the Dragon.
IrishZombie Since: Dec, 2009
#11487: Jul 7th 2015 at 7:26:20 AM

I'm not sure where I saw it, but I remember seeing a to-scale representation of space somewhere on the net that did a good job of showing the utterly vast distances involved.

IIRC, the scale was that one pixel was the size of Earth, and all the planets (and Pluto) were arranged in a line. It took several minutes of scrolling just to get to Earth. It took several times that much to get from there to Pluto.

TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#11488: Jul 7th 2015 at 7:28:33 AM

The moon actually.

I remembered "one pixel" was in its title, and this was the third or fourth result.

Fresh-eyed movie blog
TenebrousGaze Dark Eye from A Shaded Face Since: Sep, 2013 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
Dark Eye
#11489: Jul 7th 2015 at 10:55:59 AM

Ok, that is really cool. Space is big, mostly empty and rather majestic.

Aetol from France Since: Jan, 2015
#11490: Jul 7th 2015 at 11:51:14 AM

[up][up] Wow.

The speed-of-light scrolling being infuriatingly slow really drives the point home.

Worldbuilding is fun, writing is a chore
Adannor from effin' belarus Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
#11491: Jul 7th 2015 at 12:04:36 PM

Yeaaaah. At lightspeed you'd need five and a half hours to reach Pluto.

edited 7th Jul '15 12:04:46 PM by Adannor

TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#11492: Jul 7th 2015 at 9:11:21 PM

You could get that star that takes forever in Braid twice and still have time to speedrun the rest of the game in the time it takes to get from the sun to Pluto at lightspeed.

I don't think lightspeed was part of that page when I first saw it months ago.

I think the guy also has a scale model of electron orbitals scrollapalooza.

Edit: not finding it.

edited 7th Jul '15 9:22:57 PM by TParadox

Fresh-eyed movie blog
Clarste One Winged Egret Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
One Winged Egret
#11493: Jul 7th 2015 at 10:38:03 PM

I wonder how many large objects are flying around in interstellar space that are undetectable by our telescopes.

Mass that we can't see with our telescopes is literally the definition of Dark Matter, and it's calculated to make up 84% of the universe. So, strictly speaking, the overwhelming majority of the universe is invisible to us.

Gilphon Untrustworthy from The Third Sound Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Untrustworthy
#11494: Jul 8th 2015 at 12:07:56 AM

Though most of that stuff probably isn't particularly large.

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."
Thnikkafan ? from Faroe Islands (not really) Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
?
#11495: Jul 8th 2015 at 5:17:58 AM

Wait, so... dark matter is like... rocks and shit that we just can't see?

Woah.

[down] Oh.

edited 8th Jul '15 5:21:56 AM by Thnikkafan

Anyone who assigns themselves loads of character tropes is someone to be worried about.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#11496: Jul 8th 2015 at 5:21:06 AM

No, no, no. There are lots of rocks and dust and shit that we can't see because it's too small and/or it doesn't reflect enough light. That's not what dark matter is. Dark matter is literally invisible; it doesn't reflect, absorb, or radiate detectable energy. You could have fifty trillion tons of it in Earth orbit and we still couldn't see it. It can only be observed via its gravitational effect on other objects.

edited 8th Jul '15 5:21:45 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#11497: Jul 8th 2015 at 5:26:59 AM

Basically we only know it exists because it has to.

Oh really when?
Demetrios Lord of the Jungle from Des Plaines, Illinois (unfortunately) Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: I'm just a hunk-a, hunk-a burnin' love
stevebat Since: Nov, 2009
#11499: Jul 8th 2015 at 7:40:47 AM

Ah gravitational forces.

It begs the question.

How the fuck do atoms stay together when the difference between protons and electrons is so extreme?

Apocalypse: Dirge Of Swans.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#11500: Jul 8th 2015 at 7:42:40 AM

I think you're getting some of your terms confused. In magnetism, likes repel and opposites attract. Electrons and protons stick together because they have opposite charges.

The "mystery", if you can call it that, is why protons stay together in the nucleus of an atom, and the answer is the strong nuclear force. It's way more powerful than the electromagnetic force over those tiny distances, and busting it is what gives us the incredible energy released by nuclear fission and fusion.

Strength and range are inversely proportional when it comes to fundamental forces. Gravity is the weakest force but has infinite range. Electromagnetism is in the middle of the pack, and the strong nuclear force is incredibly powerful but has a tiny range.

Even with the strong nuclear force, atoms consisting of more than one proton need neutrons to glue them together in order to remain stable.

edited 8th Jul '15 7:46:47 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

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