Tomorrow we have a chance to see a very cool astronomical event, the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This won't happen again for 105 years. (A lot of us will be able to see it anyway, I don't think it will be visible from South America)
Tomorrow we have a chance to see a very cool astronomical event, the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This won't happen again for 105 years. (A lot of us will be able to see it anyway, I don't think it will be visible from South America)
It's part of the Milky Way galaxay, so zoom out and you'll see the rest of that, but at one point the book, instead of saying this thing is 55x70 light years, instead refers to that column in the center (a "star nursery") and tells us it's 57 trillion miles high. And that's nothing. I just laughed because that number is just ridiculous.
That's about the same as the drive from Casper to Rawlins, isn't it?
I love that stuff! And that's just one "small" part of one nebula in our galaxy, which is just one of billions of galaxies out there. Puts things in perspective, it does.
Exactly. An incomprehensibly huge thing is also incomprehensibly tiny.
I love that stuff! And that's just one "small" part of one nebula in our galaxy, which is just one of billions of galaxies out there. Puts things in perspective, it does.
So I've been reading Angry Birds Space to Charlie, a book by National Geographic that gives 2 or 4 pages each of really nice detail about the planets, the solar system, the sun, etc. It's over his head for the most part (hell it's over mine) but one thing it does is not get bogged down in definitions. So it doesn't get into what a light year is, you either know it or you don't but it's plain that a light year is a long ol' way. Still, once in a while they refer to distances in miles and that sometimes works really well.
Here's the "Eagle Nebula," M16:
It's part of the Milky Way galaxay, so zoom out and you'll see the rest of that, but at one point the book, instead of saying this thing is 55x70 light years, instead refers to that column in the center (a "star nursery") and tells us it's 57 trillion miles high. And that's nothing. I just laughed because that number is just ridiculous.
I love that stuff! And that's just one "small" part of one nebula in our galaxy, which is just one of billions of galaxies out there. Puts things in perspective, it does.
57 trillion miles is about 9.7 light years... which seems to me to be significantly bigger than "nothing." On the other hand... considering how really big the universe seems to be... you're probably right. I guess it depends on which end of the telescope you're standing on.
You say your birds are angry? Try a different seed? Maybe they prefer worms.
So I've been reading Angry Birds Space to Charlie, a book by National Geographic that gives 2 or 4 pages each of really nice detail about the planets, the solar system, the sun, etc. It's over his head for the most part (hell it's over mine) but one thing it does is not get bogged down in definitions. So it doesn't get into what a light year is, you either know it or you don't but it's plain that a light year is a long ol' way. Still, once in a while they refer to distances in miles and that sometimes works really well.
Here's the "Eagle Nebula," M16:
It's part of the Milky Way galaxy, so zoom out and you'll see the rest of that, but at one point the book, instead of saying this thing is 55x70 light years, instead refers to that column in the center (a "star nursery") and tells us it's 57 trillion miles high. And that's nothing. I just laughed because that number is just ridiculous.
I brought my telescope out tonight for the first time in a while. Venus is just brilliant in the sky right now. Venus shows its phases, much like the moon, and its phase is just about like the moon is, only upside down. Mars is up, and Saturn is also very visible. The moon is also just right for viewing now too.
I brought my telescope out tonight for the first time in a while. Venus is just brilliant in the sky right now. Venus shows its phases, much like the moon, and its phase is just about like the moon is, only upside down. Mars is up, and Saturn is also very visible. The moon is also just right for viewing now too.
AMAZING ERUPTIONS: This weekend, magnetic fields around sunspot 1069 became unstable and erupted—over and over again. On May 8th alone, the active region produced more than half a dozen flares. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory video-recorded each of the explosions with a clarity ten times better than HDTV.
Location: Geo Update: 35.568622, -121.10409 you're close enough Gender:
Posted:
Nov 26, 2010 - 7:30pm
Umberdog wrote:
Maybe it's Doctor Who. 28 stories is a little high, though. If it's found to be a 28 story tall diamond would it be worth anything? What would that do anything to the price of diamonds?
That's the distance between trees, measured in antelope.
It's part of the Milky Way galaxay, so zoom out and you'll see the rest of that, but at one point the book, instead of saying this thing is 55x70 light years, instead refers to that column in the center (a "star nursery") and tells us it's 57 trillion miles high. 
Yep. It's all about me. 
