Another Awe Inspiring NASA Video

I almost had to turn the musak off. Otherwise, it reminds me of how small and insignificant we are out here.
 
that's allot of light pollution!

I was thinking that same thought which led me along to thinking that there's a lot of energy being burned to light up the place that way and that there's not many patches of hospitable land left around where someone can go to get away from the rest of the masses. It's a nice video, but spawns sorta depressing thoughts.
 
I almost had to turn the musak off. Otherwise, it reminds me of how small and insignificant we are out here.

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:D
 
Well, our "light horizon" spans to about 13.7 billion light years (which is the supposed age of the universe), so that would make the visible diameter about 27.4 right? And that's just our horizon too, which means it can extend well beyond that (current data suggests to infinity).

Another great way to feel small and insignificant is to look at the hubble ultra deep field. Mindblowing stuff that actually exists :eek:!
 
Nice video, though. I'm hoping all the images, videos, and great articles released lately will get more funding for our program.
 
So if the universe is infinitely large, how large is the space in which our universe is contained? If nothing exists outside of it, how could it have ever grown?
 
So if the universe is infinitely large, how large is the space in which our universe is contained? If nothing exists outside of it, how could it have ever grown?
I believe that finding out "where the Universe ends and what is beyond" AND "the meaning of life" are related. You find the answer to one, you'll then realize the answer to the other.

If I think too much about these 2 questions, it makes me want to kill stoopid people. :cool:
 
The space itself is expanding. In regards to the size of the universe, there are some mindblowing things when you think of infinity. For example, between the integers 0 and 1 is an infinite amount of numbers, but between 0 and 2, there are even more infinite numbers. I don't know too much about the subject myself, so if anyone can explain this, by all means do so. :D
 
The space itself is expanding. In regards to the size of the universe, there are some mindblowing things when you think of infinity. For example, between the integers 0 and 1 is an infinite amount of numbers, but between 0 and 2, there are even more infinite numbers. I don't know too much about the subject myself, so if anyone can explain this, by all means do so. :D

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.
 
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 the answer to the notion of infinity between two whole numbers (say 0 and 1 like in the above example) and relation to space is addressed by the Planck length, right? Granted it's still theoretical and afaik hasn't been proven experimentally.
 
There is no such thing as a greater amount of infinite numbers
Pretty sure he was joking about the numbers thing.

The videos are neat, but at some point it just looks like that's all NASA produces that is interesting and tangible.
 
I was thinking that same thought which led me along to thinking that there's a lot of energy being burned to light up the place that way and that there's not many patches of hospitable land left around where someone can go to get away from the rest of the masses. It's a nice video, but spawns sorta depressing thoughts.

You obviously don't live in Saskatchewan then :p. I can drive 5 minutes out of the small city ~17000 people, and have a perfectly black sky.
 
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:D

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