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OT Nice video on how big is our Universe

PSU73

PSU73

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Oct 12, 2021
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Looking forward to the launch of the James Webb telescope but in the meantime came across this 7 minute video today which is really interesting.
The subject is: how big is our universe? It is explained not in terms of what has been calculated but in terms of what we have been able to 'see'...a distance measured in light years. A phenomenal number of them in fact.
I would never go into space if it takes strapping a whole lot explosives to my butt, let alone worrying about a 'systems failure' like in 'Stowaway'. High respect and appreciation for those who do. Thinking travel more like as in 'Contact'.
Just love learning about it and just how small and insignificant to the whole our planetary system is.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/how-big-is-our-universe/p0b2dl5c
 
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Midnighter

Midnighter

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PSU73 said:
Looking forward to the launch of the James Webb telescope but in the meantime came across this 7 minute video today which is really interesting.
The subject is: how big is our universe? It is explained not in terms of what has been calculated but in terms of what we have been able to 'see'...a distance measured in light years. A phenomenal number of them in fact.
I would never go into space if it takes strapping a whole lot explosives to my butt, let alone worrying about a 'systems failure' like in 'Stowaway'. High respect and appreciation for those who do. Thinking travel more like as in 'Contact'.
Just love learning about it and just how small and insignificant to the whole our planetary system is.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/how-big-is-our-universe/p0b2dl5c
Click to expand...

Took the kids to the Carnegie Science Center this summer and they had a wonderful presentation in their planetarium about constellations and the vastness of space. It will crush your soul to think too deeply about it.
 
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PrtLng Lion

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There's a ton of good stuff on the scale of the Universe on YouTube, like these



Very humbling to see how tiny we are compared to our solar system, galaxy, local group, observable universe, etc. Carl Sagan had an awesome statement with the "Pale Blue Dot" image when Voyager turned around to take a pic of earth, something to the effect of every human that ever lived: every dream, war, success, failure, of humankind occurred on that little blue dot.
 
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CyphaPSU

CyphaPSU

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PrtLng Lion said:
There's a ton of good stuff on the scale of the Universe on YouTube, like these



Very humbling to see how tiny we are compared to our solar system, galaxy, local group, observable universe, etc. Carl Sagan had an awesome statement with the "Pale Blue Dot" image when Voyager turned around to take a pic of earth, something to the effect of every human that ever lived: every dream, war, success, failure, of humankind occurred on that little blue dot.
Click to expand...

Before we think in terms of a framework that ties significance to the proportion of our physical size, consider how the universe is probably the right size and expanding at the right accelerating rate (cosmological constant) for us to even be here. In other words, the universe needs to be the size it is and expand in the way it does in order to for us to even have this conversation online.
 
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LionJim

LionJim

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CyphaPSU said:
Before we think in terms of a framework that ties significance to the proportion of our physical size, consider how the universe is probably the right size and expanding at the right accelerating rate (cosmological constant) for us to even be here. In other words, the universe needs to be the size it is and expand in the way it does in order to for us to even have this conversation online.
Click to expand...
Yes, exactly. That blows my mind.
 
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PSU73

PSU73

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CyphaPSU said:
Before we think in terms of a framework that ties significance to the proportion of our physical size, consider how the universe is probably the right size and expanding at the right accelerating rate (cosmological constant) for us to even be here. In other words, the universe needs to be the size it is and expand in the way it does in order to for us to even have this conversation online.
Click to expand...
I read what you linked. Thanks. Appropriate that the guy quoted below has a name suitable for his chosen field. I find the underlined sentence rather curious as to the implication of faster or slower acceleration.

"says cosmologist Alan Heavens, director of the Imperial Centre for Inference and Cosmology at Imperial College London..."

"In theory, Heavens explains, either the constant should be hundreds of orders of magnitude higher than it appears to be, or it should be zero, in which case the universe wouldn't accelerate. But this would disagree with what astronomers have observed. "The small—but nonzero—size of the cosmological constant is a real puzzle in cosmology," he says, adding that the research shows the number is consistent with the conditions required for the existence of intelligent life that is capable of observing it."
 
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CVLion

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PSU73 said:
research shows the number is consistent with the conditions required for the existence of intelligent life that is capable of observing it.
Click to expand...
On one hand, it is stunning and mind blowing to think about this, that things just happened to work out in this quirky way. Then there’s the other way of looking at it: that, of course the constant has that value, or we wouldn’t be here having the conversation about it!

I like to lean toward the multiple (or infinite) universes idea, where each one has its own laws including its own version of the constant. Then by definition, we have to be “lucky enough” to be in a universe where the value is such that little bits of that universe are able to manifest themselves as “us” and contemplate the wonder of it all.
 
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PrtLng Lion

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The multiverse and anthropic principle is interesting but, for me, not satisfying because it doesn't actually explain anything. It just leads to the "what caused the multiverse" question.
 
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CVLion

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PrtLng Lion said:
The multiverse and anthropic principle is interesting but, for me, not satisfying because it doesn't actually explain anything. It just leads to the "what caused the multiverse" question.
Click to expand...
Very true. For that matter, what caused the one universe we know of for sure? What was going on before the Big Bang? There’s so much more to be known than what we do know.
 
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PrtLng Lion

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TiogaLion said:
This has been posted before but it's just amazing.

Click to expand...

Absolutely amazing image. Makes you wonder if "someone" out there (not possible from earth, obviously) has a similar image of the Milky Way.

By the way, Andromeda is not actually the closest galaxy to the Milky Way as they state in that video; there are quite a few others (like LMC and SMC) in the local group that are closer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_galaxies
 
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WestSideLion

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Oct 6, 2021
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PSU73 said:
Looking forward to the launch of the James Webb telescope but in the meantime came across this 7 minute video today which is really interesting.
The subject is: how big is our universe? It is explained not in terms of what has been calculated but in terms of what we have been able to 'see'...a distance measured in light years. A phenomenal number of them in fact.
I would never go into space if it takes strapping a whole lot explosives to my butt, let alone worrying about a 'systems failure' like in 'Stowaway'. High respect and appreciation for those who do. Thinking travel more like as in 'Contact'.
Just love learning about it and just how small and insignificant to the whole our planetary system is.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/how-big-is-our-universe/p0b2dl5c
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing! That was great.
 
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