Slashdot Mirror

I think it would be foolish too assume that we are the only life in the universe. The problem with finding life is that we really dont know how common life is in the universe. I recently saw a website http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/index.html that can give very good perspective on just how big the universe reaaly is. Either an alien species has already detected us and is waiting for the human race to cause its own extinction (which I am sad too say is likely at this point) or they are so advanced that they reaaly dont care about us in any way.

2,586,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away is 'nearby' ?!

Yes... cosmologically speaking... it's only just outside the local supercluster... it's on this map... you can't miss it... just remember to take a left at Alburquerque

100 systems is what, the first 10 light years radius? (If that?)

10 light years only gets you up to 9 systems, none of them similar to ours (Alpha Centauri A is very similar to Sol, but you've got Alpha Centauri B to worry about). You go out to 15 light years and you get about 30 systems, including some interesting buggers like Epsilon Eridane, Epsilon Indi, and everyone's favorite, Tau Ceti.

You're not too far off though. Sources say 20 ly puts you just over 100 stars with 79 systems. Only five are type G stars like Sol.

A doctor from 500 years ago describes them, some interesting stuff amongst the debatable collection here and an account from 1706 of Alpine dragons.

That should get y'all started. There's too much out there, consistently presented as factual down through the ages, to be all phantasm. Stuff like the dragons on the walls of Babylon alongside and not differentiated from the ordinary animals (lions etc) alongside them.

How's this?

There's an even better map of the universe here, at http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/index.html

Perhaps less scientific, but it looks cooler: An Atlas of the Universe

You know, I'm sure this story is a dupe, and I'm sure I've seen it before, but nonetheless, it's still pretty darned amazing to see the universe like that. The number of times you have to zoom out to see the Galaxy from the roof of the laboratory shows you just how small we really are. No wonder we haven't met any extraterrestrials yet, our society, our entire civilisation has literally no impact on even our own solar system, let alone anything further out. Definitely puts my 10AM deadline in to perspective.

For people interested primarily in astronomy, there's a similar thing here which gives a count of the number of stars at different zoom levels. Interestingly, there are only 33 stars within 12.5ly, but there are 250,000 within 250ly. I don't think that sort of distance will be beyond us in a few centuries, if we get our act together. That's an awful lot of exploring to do...

As a sidenote, I would have loved to be the undergraduate student with the digital camera who got that assignment for his final year project!

Consider the size of the universe. Then consider all of your knowledge of the universe. Now consider how likely intelligent life exists. The fact of the matter is, we are a very small and insignificant on the grand scheme of things. How can you, with any confidence, "doubt there is another intelligent lifeform out there". I would think that an assertion like that would require more knowledge than any of us have currently.

When considering the size of the universe, consider these figures:
Size of the sun: 1,299,400 Earths

Size of Jupiter: 1316 Earths

(scroll to bottom, look at volume)

Speed of Light: 186,000 mi/per sec

Diameter of our Galaxy = 90,000 light years or 5,865,696,000,000 (almost 6 trillion) miles across

Number of stars in the Milky Way: 200 - 600 Billion

The universe is HUUGE - and this is just what we are able to see....



Number of stars in the visible universe = 2000 billion billion or 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Number of superclusters in the visible universe = 270 000

Number of galaxy groups in the visible universe = 500 million

Number of large galaxies in the visible universe = 10 billion

Number of dwarf galaxies in the visible universe = 100 billion

We are on a teeny-tiny planet next to an average star, in unremarkable galaxy - let's not take things out of context.

While I won't say it is likely that there is intelligent life, I would reserve judgement until there is more data - as should anyone concerned about truth.

Consider the size of the universe. Then consider all of your knowledge of the universe. Now consider how likely intelligent life exists. The fact of the matter is, we are a very small and insignificant on the grand scheme of things. How can you, with any confidence, "doubt there is another intelligent lifeform out there". I would think that an assertion like that would require more knowledge than any of us have currently.

When considering the size of the universe, consider these figures:
Size of the sun: 1,299,400 Earths

Size of Jupiter: 1316 Earths

(scroll to bottom, look at volume)

Speed of Light: 186,000 mi/per sec

Diameter of our Galaxy = 90,000 light years or 5,865,696,000,000 (almost 6 trillion) miles across

Number of stars in the Milky Way: 200 - 600 Billion

The universe is HUUGE - and this is just what we are able to see....



Number of stars in the visible universe = 2000 billion billion or 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Number of superclusters in the visible universe = 270 000

Number of galaxy groups in the visible universe = 500 million

Number of large galaxies in the visible universe = 10 billion

Number of dwarf galaxies in the visible universe = 100 billion

We are on a teeny-tiny planet next to an average star, in unremarkable galaxy - let's not take things out of context.

While I won't say it is likely that there is intelligent life, I would reserve judgement until there is more data - as should anyone concerned about truth.

Eddie Izzard made a comment about pears: " And pears can fuck off too. 'Cause they're gorgeous little beasts but they're ripe for a half an hour...and you're never there!"

offhand i'd say we've been Trolled. Maps of galaxies, generally thin wedges, show them to be arranged as filaments or sheets around the edges of voids, for example this and a higher res version. The galaxies are not arranged as concentric shells but as the matrix of an open-celled foam. Any appearance of concentricity is due to the fact that galaxies further away are harder to see (see the bottom image).

Why should an ending be something long, and complicated?

In the side panel on the right:
"Extrasolar Life Briefing
# 3,000+ visible galaxies (Hubble Telescope)"


not according to this. Dumbass reporters.

Apart from all the moronic comments about sturdy computers (Nice going Irishman, trolling in the story), Isn't this a clue about the silence in space? You know, the Drake equation? How strong must a signal be, to be heard? Pioneer is only 2x orbit of Pluto away from the Sun, and already impossible to listen to. Nearest star is 4.2 light years away, and nearest galaxy is "just" 75,000 light years away. How strong signal would be needed to communicate these distances. I know the Pioneer signal is only a few milli (micro?) watts, but still...
J.

...then check this out: The Universe within 15 billion Light Years - The Visible Universe, compared to 'only' 10 million! Not as flashy as the java one, but still pretty interesting.