Thursday 31 January 2013

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU WERE THROWN OUT INTO SPACE?

Ever have that thought? I wonder what would happen if I jumped out of this space ship wearing only a thong? I have. Well, not with a thong. The movies have portrayed space as a dangerous place and it is. Getting your spacesuit ripped open will suck all your blood out and kill you in seconds. Not to mention the lack of oxygen.

But what is space? What is in "space"? Lets try this explanation:
Outer space, or simply space, is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos. Observations have now recently proven that it also contains dark matter and dark energy. The baseline temperature, as set by the background radiation left over from the Big Bang, is only 2.7 kelvin (K); in contrast, temperatures in the coronae of stars can reach over a million kelvin.
Plasma with an extremely low density (less than one hydrogen atom per cubic meter) and high temperature (millions of kelvin) in the space between galaxies accounts for most of the baryonic (ordinary) matter in outer space; local concentrations have condensed into stars and galaxies. Intergalactic space takes up most of the volume of the Universe, but even galaxies and star systems consist almost entirely of empty space.
There is no firm boundary where space begins. However the Kármán line, at an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) above sea level, is conventionally used as the start of outer space for the purpose of space treaties and aerospace records keeping. The framework for international space law was established by the Outer Space Treaty, which was passed by the United Nations in 1967. This treaty precludes any claims of national sovereignty and permits all states to explore outer space freely. In 1979, the Moon Treaty made the surfaces of objects such as planets, as well as the orbital space around these bodies, the jurisdiction of the international community. Additional resolutions regarding the peaceful uses of outer space have been drafted by the United Nations, but these have not precluded the deployment of weapons into outer space, including the live testing of anti-satellite weapons.
Humans began the physical exploration of space during the 20th century with the advent of high-altitude balloon flights, followed by the development of single and multi-stage rocket launchers. Earth orbit was achieved by Yuri Gagarin in 1961 and unmanned spacecraft have since reached all of the known planets in the Solar System. Achieving low Earth orbit requires a minimum velocity of 28,100 km/h (17,500 mph), much faster than any conventional aircraft.
Outer space represents a challenging environment for human exploration because of the dual hazards of vacuum and radiation. Microgravity has a deleterious effect on human physiology, resulting in muscle atrophy and bone loss. Space travel has so far been limited to low Earth orbit and the Moon for manned flight, and the vicinity of the Solar System for unmanned; the remainder of outer space remains inaccessible to humans other than by passive observation with telescopes.
Phew. Ok, so what would happen to you if you were to be thrown out of a space ship into outer space? Find out in the video below.


To find out more about how big the universe is, try reading my new book - "How Big Is Our Universe - Answers To The Question You've Always Asked". You can click on the image below to hyperjump there.


To get a free 40 page sample of all the chapters, click on the image below.


Thursday 24 January 2013

HOW LONG COULD YOU SURVIVE ON THE SURFACE OF THE SUN?

The Sun is by far the largest object in the solar system. It contains more than 99.8% of the total mass of the Solar System (Jupiter contains most of the rest). It is often said that the Sun is an "ordinary" star. That's true in the sense that there are many others similar to it. But there are many more smaller stars than larger ones; the Sun is in the top 10% by mass. The median size of stars in our galaxy is probably less than half the mass of the Sun.

The Sun is personified in many mythologies: the Greeks called it Helios and the Romans called it Sol. The Sun is, at present, about 70% hydrogen and 28% helium by mass everything else ("metals") amounts to less than 2%. This changes slowly over time as the Sun converts hydrogen to helium in its core.

Conditions at the Sun's core (approximately the inner 25% of its radius) are extreme. The temperature is 15 million Celsius and the pressure is 250 billion atmospheres. At the center of the core the Sun's density is more than 150 times that of water.

The Sun's power (about 386 billion billion megaWatts) is produced by nuclear fusion reactions. Each second about 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen are converted to about 695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons of energy in the form of gamma rays. As it travels out toward the surface, the energy is continuously absorbed and re-emitted at lower and lower temperatures so that by the time it reaches the surface, it is primarily visible light. For the last 20% of the way to the surface the energy is carried more by convection than by radiation.

The surface of the Sun, called the photosphere, is at a temperature of about 5526 Celsius . Sunspots are "cool" regions, only 3526 Celsius (they look dark only by comparison with the surrounding regions). Sunspots can be very large, as much as 50,000 km in diameter. Sunspots are caused by complicated and not very well understood interactions with the Sun's magnetic field.

Phew! That is a pretty hot place to be, even in the shade. All sorts of things have fallen into the Sun and disintegrated. I don't think you need to even fall into the Sun to get toasted, just flying by it is enough. So, imagine if you were transported to the surface of the Sun (via the transporter from Star Trek), how long would you last?

I know, I asked the same question too. I wondered at the possibilities as well. It seems impossible but there must be a way to survive, right? Imagine hopping along the surface like Neil Armstrong did on the Moon. Anyway, if you want to find out whether it is possible, take this quiz. Yes this is the ultimate quiz to answer your question once and for all - How long could you survive on the surface of the Sun? Notice the question is "How long.." and not "If you could..", that tells you something.

To proceed, click here or click on the image below.


EARTH ENERGY BUDGET



BBQ time? Think again..
The Sun is the source of energy for the Earth system. This energy reaches the Earth primarily in the form of visible light, although it also includes some infrared energy (heat), ultraviolet energy, and other wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Taking into account night and day and the seasons, on average about 340 Watts of energy enter every square meter of the Earth system. This is slightly less than the energy that six 60 Watt light bulbs would produce, again, for every square meter of the Earth.

As it reaches the Earth system, some of the sunlight is reflected back to space by clouds and the atmosphere (particularly dust particles or aerosols in the atmosphere). A little more sunlight is reflected to space from the Earth surface, particularly from bright regions such as snow- and ice-covered areas. In total, about 30% of sunlight is reflected directly back to space. This percentage is called the albedo.

About 70% of the sunlight is absorbed by the Earth system (atmosphere and surface) and heats it up. The elements of the Earth system (surface, atmosphere, clouds) emit infrared radiation according to their temperature, following the Planck function. Cold objects emit less energy; warm objects emit more. This infrared radiation is emitted in all directions.

One net effect of all the infrared emission is that an amount of heat energy equivalent to ~70% of the incoming sunlight leaves the Earth system and goes back into space. This is because the Earth system constantly tends toward equilibrium between the energy that reaches the Earth from the Sun and the energy that is emitted to space. Scientists refer to this process as Earth's "radiation budget”, and it happens because the system tends toward equilibrium.

Another net effect of the infrared emission is that about 340 Watts of infrared energy is directed back to the surface from the atmosphere. This is called the greenhouse effect, and is due mainly to water vapor in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, methane and other infrared-absorbing gases enhance this effect. Without an atmosphere, the Earth would have an average temperature of -18 °C, too cold for life as we know it.


At the surface, two additional heat transfer mechanisms operate to balance the system, in addition to the radiation transfer: 1) convection and conduction in the form of thermals (which create weather), and 2) a change of state of water through evapotranspiration (which also feeds weather).

Just like a family budget for finances, the energy budget of the Earth should be balanced. In equation form:

Energy In = Energy Out

This balance can be considered at several levels in the Earth system:

At the top of the atmosphere, the energy coming in from the Sun is balanced by sunlight reflected back to space and the net infrared emission from the Earth. The equation is:

Sunlight In = Sunlight reflected from clouds/atmosphere + Sunlight reflected from surface + IR emission

At the Earth’s surface, absorbed sunlight is balanced by the net IR emission and the conduction/convection and evapotranspiration. The equation is:

Sunlight absorbed + IR back radiation (greenhouse effect) = IR emission + Thermals + Evapotranspiration

The most complicated balance is in the atmosphere, where absorbed sunlight and energy absorbed from the
surface are balanced by the net infrared emission. The equation is:

Sunlight absorbed + IR absorbed + Thermals + Evapotranspiration = IR emitted to space + IR emitted to ground

These balance equations are for an equilibrium state of the Earth. Equilibrium would be expected for a planet that has spent a long time in a stable solar system, but sometimes changes occur that take the system out of balance. For example, the ice ages occurred because of long-term changes in Earth’s orbit around the Sun, which resulted in a change to the “Sunlight In” term. Over time, reflected sunlight and IR emission changed to balance the first equation. The result was a colder surface and major glacial advances.

So the next time you are thinking of starting that giant BBQ in the yard, think about the balance. May the force be with you and may you bring balance to it.

Friday 18 January 2013

MOON SURVIVAL CHALLENGE

The Moon is our closest space neighbor. It is the closest thing in outer space to the Earth. Not only does it look good when it is full and bright but helps werewolves make the transition so they could go out hunting. Less importantly, the Moon regulates our gravity, tidal waves, our weather and helps to guide us on the passage of time. Not bad for a dead piece of rock with nothing on it but dust.

It does look awesome though on a clear night when it is full. And the view back from the Moon to the Earth is spectacular as well. Imagine if we all could have a chance to go there. To experience the 1/6th gravity that Neil Armstrong felt. And perform missions while building a base for human exploration of the rest of the Universe.

But as tranquil as the Moon is, there lies a lot of danger. For one, here is atmosphere so there is no oxygen for you to breathe. And one side is too hot while the other is too cold. That's because the Moon only faces the Earth, so one side is always in the Sun and the other in the shadow. So if you were to be part of a team of astronauts building a Moon base on the Moon, how exciting would that be.

Imagine if one day while out on a mission away from your base ship on the sunlit side of the moon and while on the way back to your base ship, your small spacecraft crash-landed about 200 miles away. You need to reach the base ship, in addition to your spacesuit, you were able to salvage some items. But you have to prioritise which item to bring and which to leave, because you can't carry all of them. So which item would you rate as the most important and which is the least.

This is a fascinating quiz which is fun but is based on actual NASA studies. NASA has this list as well. You try to make your own list and compare that to NASAs'.

Using what you know about the moon, rate each item in the above list according to how important it would be in getting you back to the base ship. To take this quiz, click HERE.

Thursday 17 January 2013

ARNOLD DOES VADER

Everybody knows who Darth Vader is. Love him or hate him, we all love him in the end. It's that black suit, helmet and that voice. I love that voice. Did you know that Vader's voice in the movie was not the actual actor's voice but a voice over of another actor? And that the same voice used to be the voice of CNN?

The actor who voiced Darth Vader in all the Star Wars movies i.e. episodes 4,5 and 6 that is, was James Earl Jones. He has a natural deep booming voice to begin so he was perfect for Vader, with some slight modifications of course.

But more importantly, have you ever wondered if that task fell on somebody else? Somebody with a deep booming voice but slightly accented towards the Bavarian Alps? Well, not that slightly actually, quite a lot. Well imagine no more my friends, it is here. I present to you the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger to voice Darth Vader. Ahh, a match made in heaven.


Wednesday 16 January 2013

LARGEST OBJECT IN THE UNIVERSE

Artist impression of a Quasar (Image Credit : NASA)
The universe is huge. That is an understatement. How huge? Well, to truly explain it to you, I would have to use a range of expletives, which I don't think I would like to do as I do not want a flood of complaints on here. But suffice it to say that it is huge beyond imagination, even beyond the imaginations of all the scientists that have ever lived put together.

And there are huge things in our universe as well such as stars, galaxies, nebulae, clusters, walls, voids and all that. For example our own Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light years across. So travelling in a starship that can move at the speed of light (which is 300,000,000 meters per second!), you'd need to travel non-stop for 100,000 years to cross from one side to the other. That is huge.

But then we have bigger galaxies and even bigger clusters of galaxies such as our own Virgo Supercluster. This supercluster is where our galaxy resides in. This supercluster is 110 million light years across. That is huge.

Then we have Voids. Voids are just empty space between matter in the universe, matter such as galaxies, nebulae, clusters and superclusters. Voids can get really big, such as the Eridanus Supervoid which is 500 million light years across. That is huge.

Anything bigger then? Duh..yeah! Recently we humans have found something even bigger, stupendously bigger. This thing is called a Large Quasar Group. First before I go jumping in to how huge this thing is, what is a Quasar?

A Quasar is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. A quasar is a compact region in the center of a massive galaxy surrounding its central supermassive black hole. Its size is 10–10,000 times the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole. The quasar is powered by an accretion disc around the black hole.

The Schwarzschild radius is the distance from the center of an object such that, if all the mass of the object were compressed within that sphere, the escape speed from the surface would equal the speed of light. An example of an object smaller than its Schwarzschild radius is a black hole. So, a Quasar is 10 to 10,000 times bigger than the black hole in which it exists.

See what happens is that a black hole sucks in matter around it. As that matter falls into the black hole, it spins while falling, kind of like water draining in a sink. But the black hole spins the matter so fast that sometimes it spits out some of this matter in the form of a jet of energy. This jet of energy is a Quasar.

So we can surmise that a Quasar basically sits in the middle of a galaxy. Quasar = galaxy. So, a big group of Quasars = a big group of galaxies i.e. clusters or as they get bigger, superclusters. The new winner of the biggest object in the universe contest is what scientists call a "Large Quasar Group" or LQG. So basically an LQG is nothing but a large group of galaxies or what I like to call LGG.

This newly discovered LQG is 4 billion light years across. Yup you read that right, 4 billion! The observable universe is 93 billion light years across, this thing takes up 4 of those. How big is that? !@#$%^&*()?<>{} big, ok? Get the big picture?

The Royal Astronomical Society explains:
To give some sense of scale, our galaxy, the Milky Way, is separated from its nearest neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy, by about 0.75 Megaparsecs (Mpc) or 2.5 million light-years. Whole clusters of galaxies can be 2-3 Mpc across but LQGs can be 200 Mpc or more across. Based on the Cosmological Principle and the modern theory of cosmology, calculations suggest that astrophysicists should not be able to find a structure larger than 370 Mpc.
The LQG is about 1,200 Mpc across - or four times larger than it should be. Phew, the universe is truly mind bending, isn't it? So still think it made itself? Who's your daddy now?

To find out more about how big the universe is, try reading my new book - "How Big Is Our Universe - Answers To The Question You've Always Asked". You can click on the image below to hyperjump there.


Tuesday 15 January 2013

NO STREAKING STARS?

What jumping into hyperspace really looks like.

What? We cannot jump into hyperspace and see the stars streaking by like the Millennium Falcon of Star Wars? Crap! I was hoping to be able to buy one of those starships in like another 10 years so I can zip around the galaxy and see all the great stuff out there.

Oh, for you perverts out there, the title of this post does not refer to Hollywood stars running around naked.

Thanks to some university kids (University of Leicester) who did some calculations whether we would see the stars streaking like in Star Wars when we jump into hyperspace, they discovered that we won't see it like that. So basically Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would not see any approaching stars as they accelerate through the galaxy because of the Doppler effect.

This is the phenomenon by which the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation shortens or lengthens depending on whether the source is nearing or moving away from the person who is perceiving it. The classic example of the Doppler effect is the siren of a fire engine or ambulance, whose pitch changes relative to the bystander as it races down the street. Bystander in this case would be you.

What university physics majors thinks a hyperspace jump looks like.
Because the Millennium Falcon is speeding towards the stars, the wavelength of the stellar light would shorten, which means it would move out of the visible part of the energy spectrum and into the X-ray range, the students calculated. And we all know that we cannot see X-rays, if we could we'd be smiling most of the time especially when we're at the shopping mall.

On the other hand, cosmic microwave background radiation — the backwash of radiation from the Big Bang which created the Universe 14 billion years ago — would lengthen in wavelength and suddenly become visible. Hence we can now see the Cosmic Microwave Background, well at least the WMAP satellite could.

To those onboard the Millennium Falcon however, this ancient energy would appear as a central disc of brilliant light. But we don't really care about a central disc of brilliant light, do we? We just want to see those streaking stars man! Not the Hollywood type (hmm, not such a bad idea actually).

“If the Millennium Falcon existed and really could travel that fast, sunglasses would certainly be advisable,” said Riley Connors, 21, who worked with three other final-year Master of Physics students in an offbeat project aimed at stimulating out-of-the-box thinking.

Out-of-the-box thinking, eh? Well Riley, why don't you come up with glasses that will extrapolate the light by reverse multiplexing the dopler radiation to make the stars streak when we go into a hyperjump!

Katie Dexter, 21, from Kettering, concluded: “Perhaps Disney should take the physical implications of such high speed travel into account in their forthcoming films.” Is she nuts? She can't be a Trekkie either. Disney, if you ever listen to her, I will burn down Disney World. We love our science fiction! Lets keep it real.

Monday 14 January 2013

PHEW! WE CAN GO BACK TO LIVING NOW

Not happening now..
Earlier reports of an asteroid the size of at least 3 football fields hitting Earth in 2036 has been proven wrong.  Collective sigh of relief please! Thank God. Thank God? All if not most of us would say that at hearing this news, even those Atheists among us. Why I wonder? Something to think about.

According to the NASA report:
NASA scientists at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., effectively have ruled out the possibility the asteroid Apophis will impact Earth during a close flyby in 2036. The scientists used updated information obtained by NASA-supported telescopes in 2011 and 2012, as well as new data from the time leading up to Apophis' distant Earth flyby yesterday (Jan. 9).
"With the new data provided by the Magdalena Ridge [New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology] and the Pan-STARRS [Univ. of Hawaii] optical observatories, along with very recent data provided by the Goldstone Solar System Radar, we have effectively ruled out the possibility of an Earth impact by Apophis in 2036," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "The impact odds as they stand now are less than one in a million, which makes us comfortable saying we can effectively rule out an Earth impact in 2036. Our interest in asteroid Apophis will essentially be for its scientific interest for the foreseeable future."
The April 13, 2029, flyby of asteroid Apophis will be one for the record books. On that date, Apophis will become the closest flyby of an asteroid of its size when it comes no closer than 19, 400 miles (31,300 kilometers) above Earth's surface.

Here's a nice actual photo of the offending piece of rock, if you could call it a picture much less "nice".

Can you please hold it steady?
Well, we can go back to doing whatever things we were doing or planning to do then. All we're going to get is a nice fireworks display in 2036.

Saturday 12 January 2013

DEATH STAR COST AND WORTH

Under construction
I'm loving all the excitement and attention that this Deat Star issue is having at the moment. It's funny and entertaining, just what some of us needed to escape the humdrum of "normal" life. Or to forget that obnoxious, idiotic and totally bastard boss that you have. Who, me? You talking to me?

Anyway, the story as we know started due to a petition that some 30 thousand United States citizen filed to their government to have the government spend a gazilion dollars (which they don't have by the way) to build an actual Death Star like the one from the Star Wars movies. The government of course turned them down, politely and with some humour.

So what was the cost of making this thing? Well Students at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania have calculated that it would cost over $852,000,000,000,000,000 (or $852 quadrillion dollars) just to buy the 1.08×1015 tonnes of steel needed to build a Death Star. That’s more than 13,000 times our entire planet’s GDP.

We actually have enough iron inside the Earth to build around 2 million Death Stars, of course you'd have to remove quite a bit of that steel from the Earth's core which none of us would like you to do (something to do with screwing up the magnetic field and then getting toasted by the Sun).


Lehigh’s students also estimate that at Earth’s current rate of steel production (1.3 billion tonnes per annum), it would take a mere 833,315 years to produce enough steel to begin work. So best start now.

Is it worth the effort and cost?

According to the Death Star PR Department (yes, they actually have a PR department) yes it is. TOTALLY WORTH IT. And here's why:

It pays for itself.
“But that astronomically large figure doesn’t even factor in energy and labour costs, to name but a few. How could something that expensive possibly pay for itself?” we hear you ask. EASILY, that’s how, imaginary question-asker. Once you’ve built yourself a Death Star, you travel around the galaxy and point your $852 quadrillion megalaser at other people’s planets. You’ll be surprised how quickly and COMPLETELY OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL they offer to help cover your costs.

It’s cool.
Is there a cooler, more bad ass, more famous super weapon in the entire universe? No. Can you really put a price on cool? Yes, probably. But for the purposes of our argument? NO. Absolutely not. Unless the price you’re talking about is $852 quadrillion dollars. Plus, you get to say, “We blow up planets now. Blowing up planets is cool.”

The PR Department has more great reasons for building the Death Star and some of them are pretty convincing. I would suggest you to hyperjump on there and see for yourself. It's not too late to start saving now. We've got a long long way to go.

Hyperjump here.

I'D VOTE TO BUILD THE DEATHSTAR

Deathstar about to destroy Alderaan?
I came across an interesting news today about making the Deathstar from Star Wars. I am of course a BIG BIG Star Wars fan, I watched Episode 4 when I was 8 years old. So when I saw the headline about making the Deathstar, I was of course delighted and excited albeit a bit curious as to why we would need one.

It seems this idea of making a Deathstar was submitted as an official petition to the United States government via the "We The People" website created by the US government. The website explains itself as follows:
The right to petition your government is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. We the People provides a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country. We created We the People because we want to hear from you. If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.
So for those of us who have no idea what this petition website is all about, please visit We The People and find out. In a nutshell, the US government created this petition channel for the people to petition their government for almost anything and the government is obliged to answer.

Now back to the Deathstar story, the original petition made some logical arguments about job creation and national defense.
Those who sign here petition the United States government to secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016.
By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.
Since the government is obliged to reply, they did. The reply came from Paul Shawcross, chief of the science and space branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget. And boy, was his reply on the money.
The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
  • The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
  • The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
  • Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
However, look carefully and you'll notice something already floating in the sky - that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations.
The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian - living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs - one wielding a laser - roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.
Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo - and soon, crew - to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.
Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.
We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.
We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.
If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
Haha..what a story. It would be a real novelty to have a Deathstar roaming our galaxy, zapping useless planets or maybe asteroids or comets or any chunk of rock that was zooming in to collide with Earth but I have to agree with Mr Shawcross that our resources are better used somewhere else. Although Darth Vader would not necessarily agree.
Mr Shawcross, I find your lack of faith...........disturbing.
To read the petition and answer in its original form, please visit here.

Friday 11 January 2013

HOW BIG IS THE UNIVERSE?

To start off, lets have some really smart people explain to us how big the universe really is. This is a short video to explain it in the simplest terms possible. I wanted to share this with you all as a video is always more interesting than just plain old text. Anyway, I found this video quite easy to follow and digest.

We'll get more interesting information as we go along. For now, just enjoy this video first and fly across the universe in your dreams tonight.


HELLO FROM EARTH

The galactic plane or central disk of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
Hello and welcome to my new blog about the universe and everything in it. My name is Alvin and I hope you will be educated, fascinated and entertained on my blog as I share all the wondrous things in our universe that make me excited and drooly (if there's such a word).

A little about me. I was born a year after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon and left his footprint there. After that momentous event, I think the whole world opened its collective eyes towards the cosmos, the heavens, that wide black space above our heads.

I have always been interested in science and cosmology, science fiction and fantasy, Star Wars and Star Trek, the world around me as it was explained by science. Everything had a reason, a purpose. And everything is connected to everything else.

I love to watch a good sci-fi movie, the more twisted but realistic the plot, the better. I usually play back the movie in my head for hours afterwards, asking all sorts of questions. What if? How is that possible? Where did that come from?

And so it is with this blog I wanted to share my interest in the universe around me with all of you. There are some profoundly wondrous things in our universe that you could never have imagined. And yet it has existed for billions of years. Billions of years? Are you kidding me? How does that information pay my bills?

It doesn't, does it? But it does make you wonder. Not whether it will pay your bills of course, silly! Knowing about the universe will make you think about your purpose in it, how small you are. There are so many things in the universe that is so awesome that you will wonder how you managed to survive in it at all! Things like gravity, oxygen, carbon, speed of light, rotation, position, distance, composition, maybe even luck.

So, get ready for a journey of discovery as I will do my best to share with you all the things that have kept me awake at night and made me question my very existence with you. Hopefully, you will realise your place in this universe and where you are heading. It's not all scientific mumbo-jumbo, there are profound philosophical and religious enlightenment to be found.

So Read! Acquire knowledge! And be blown away by the universe that you already live in.