Tales Posted July 27, 2009 Posted July 27, 2009 Love that picture. Space is interesting, but I'm more interested what's beyond the universe. It got to end somewhere.
Daft Posted July 27, 2009 Author Posted July 27, 2009 A bit more space porn, A Supernova Blossoms In A Neighboring Galaxy, And The Shockwave Is Aimed At Earth See the blue halo around this supernova? It's blue-shifted because of the Doppler effect, which means it's heading straight for us. And the supernova E0102, in the Small Magellanic Cloud, is only 190,000 light years away. Brace for impact! This new image of E0102, from the Chandra Observatory, is leading scientists to believe the supernova's "ejecta" is actually cylinder-shaped, with different "cylinders" of energy moving at different speeds — and we're just viewing it end-on. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/e0102/ It's very purddy!!
Dante Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 This totally reminded of that Hadron Collider that everyone was so worried would create black holes and destroy the world/universe. New wallpaper for me.
Paj! Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 I remember hoping that the universe wasn't destroyed by the Hadron Collider. I was walking back home after dropping my sister off at the bus, and knowing that it as few minutes until it was switched on.
Daft Posted July 28, 2009 Author Posted July 28, 2009 I remember hoping that the universe wasn't destroyed by the Hadron Collider. I was walking back home after dropping my sister off at the bus, and knowing that it as few minutes until it was switched on. Doesn't it take like a couple months to get to full power?
MoogleViper Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 Doesn't it take like a couple months to get to full power? Since when have the media been concerned with facts and details?
The fish Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 I remember hoping that the universe wasn't destroyed by the Hadron Collider. I was walking back home after dropping my sister off at the bus, and knowing that it as few minutes until it was switched on. The funny thing about that is that, on that day, they were only sending the beam one way (no colliding), and the chances of them opening a black hole if they were colliding would have been no different than that chance of quantum mechanics resulting in one randomly - essentially nothing.
Daft Posted July 28, 2009 Author Posted July 28, 2009 Since when have the media been concerned with facts and details? Since when was Paj the media?
Gizmo Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 The funny thing about that is that, on that day, they were only sending the beam one way (no colliding), and the chances of them opening a black hole if they were colliding would have been no different than that chance of quantum mechanics resulting in one randomly - essentially nothing. This. Alot of Quantum Physics boils down essentially to statistics; sure, it's possible that every air molecule in the room could end up in the corners for a minute, resulting in suffocation for every living thing in the area. But it's so improbable as to have never happened, in all the trillions of minutes that have elapsed in the billions of rooms around the world.
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 This. Alot of Quantum Physics boils down essentially to statistics; sure, it's possible that every air molecule in the room could end up in the corners for a minute, resulting in suffocation for every living thing in the area. But it's so improbable as to have never happened, in all the trillions of minutes that have elapsed in the billions of rooms around the world. But wouldn't that go against the laws of thermodynamics, specifically the theory of entropy? Or do those not work on quantum level?
Gizmo Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 In what specific way do you mean it goes against the laws of thermodynamics?
Gizmo Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 Don't quiz the Giz on phyz. Quite possibly my favourite post ever.
MoogleViper Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 Since when was Paj the media? Well where else is he going to hear about it from? I highly doubt Paj was part of CERN's research team. And all of the scaremongering was created by the media.
Daft Posted July 28, 2009 Author Posted July 28, 2009 Well where else is he going to hear about it from? I highly doubt Paj was part of CERN's research team. And all of the scaremongering was created by the media. You don't need to be part of CERN's research team to know that. It didn't take too much to find out that it would be slowly powered over months and I'm pretty sure Paj isn't an idiot. Anyways, off topic. It was just a throw away remark. : peace:
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 In what specific way do you mean it goes against the laws of thermodynamics? Well, I'm not at all trying to "quiz the Giz on phys". But I've learned that entropy is the level of "chaos" in a system, and that the entropy will never decrease, only increase. Like, for instance, if you drop an ice cube into a glass of water, the ice cube will eventually melt and become one with the water, thus making the system more chaotic. It will never re-materialise as an ice cube because that would lower the entropy of the system, which is impossible on this scale. But I've also read that on very large scales and very small scales (galactic and quantum scales, that is), drops in entropy are possible. The Big Bang is an example hereof. My question is, then, would quantum physics allow for all air to suddenly manifest in the corner of a room? Or does that go against the law of thermodynamics, as it would lower the entropy of the combined system of the air and the room? (I'm sorry if this is totally noob talk. I researched it myself on the Internet.)
Molly Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 My favourite space porno image of the thread! Beautiful. Can someone remind me what the Universe is expanding into? Last time I thought about it my head nearly exploded.
Daft Posted July 28, 2009 Author Posted July 28, 2009 It's not expanding. Everything in it is just shrinking. DUN DUN DUuUuUuUuUuUUUUUUUUU!!!!!
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 My favourite space porno image of the thread! Beautiful. Can someone remind me what the Universe is expanding into? Last time I thought about it my head nearly exploded. Isn't the universe both infinite and expanding at the same time?
weeyellowbloke Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 My favourite space porno image of the thread! Beautiful. Can someone remind me what the Universe is expanding into? Last time I thought about it my head nearly exploded. The universe isn't expanding into anything as it's space itself expanding. For it to expand into something would imply space outside of space. So basically beyond this universe is....nothing.
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 The universe isn't expanding into anything as it's space itself expanding. For it to expand into something would imply space outside of space. So basically beyond this universe is....nothing. Ah, right. I only had physics at C level, and some of these things I only discussed with my teacher on my own. I would like to have physics at a higher level, just like I would like to have math, drama, music, etc. *sigh* You can't have it all, I guess.
Slaggis Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 What is 'nothing' though? Exactly, that's the question. What would "nothing" look like? But then, as humans we can't actually imagine that because for us to imagine what nothing would look like, we're turning it into something more than nothing. My head hurts.
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