Another Awe Inspiring NASA Video

Originally Posted by thekipper

How correct you are...it's difficult to even comprehend the vastness of the universe.

My 7 year old asked me last week if the universe had an end...hard to tell him that we think it's 93 billion light years in diameter but still growing

Sit him in front of the TV, fire up Netflix and have him watch Cosmos.

Originally Posted by Yoshiyuki Blade

Another great way to feel small and insignificant is to look at the hubble ultra deep field. Mindblowing stuff that actually exists !

Watch this :
http://vimeo.com/38101676

Add a few more lights and we got ourselves a lightbulb

Originally Posted by Youn

The videos are neat, but at some point it just looks like that's all NASA produces that is interesting and tangible.

Foolish comment, imho...

Originally Posted by Starcrossed

You can divide a number up into infinite part; however, there is a finite distance between the numbers 0 and 1. There is no such thing as a greater amount of infinite numbers, and therein lies my point --- if the universe is infinite it cannot be contained within anything. If it cannot be contained within anything then it could have never expanded into anything.

I think I made a mistake in trying to articulate it. Here's a quote from astrophysicist Neil Tyson:

...consider that some infinities are larger than others. For example, there are more fractions than there are counting numbers, yet they are both infinite.

It's kind of a weird thing to wrap my head around. Basically, even though there infinite numbers, there are "more" and "less" infinite numbers?

Infinity can only be reached more rapidly; it can never be exceeded. Infinity + 1 is nonsense -- because the 1 has already been consumed by infinity.

P.S. Do not trust everything a person says simply because they have studied astrophysics. Einstein wasn't much of a philosopher, at times, and he was a pretty great physicist.

It's turtles all the way down.

Originally Posted by Starcrossed

Foolish comment, imho...

Why? My point was that many people probably don't know about the other things NASA does because what tends to be newsworthy are these types of videos. The criticism was nothing against the program but more to do with how they are represented by the media.

Originally Posted by Starcrossed

P.S. Do not trust everything a person says simply because they have studied astrophysics. Einstein wasn't much of a philosopher, at times, and he was a pretty great physicist.

It's not just one person that says this. There's a popular example from a mathematician about a hotel with an infinite number of rooms which happened to be full. So the owner makes room by moving everyone 1 room forward or something. It seems to be something that mathematicians like to use to describe the weirdness of infinities.