The Galaxy

[PhilDernerJr]

First, I'd just like to say I never did drugs, and this is not something that I'm thinking about under the influence of pot or anything else.

I saw an article on on the news that got me thinking about the galaxy and its size. I started doing some calculations, and I could be wrong here, so please correct me, as I'm looking to learn.

I will use Orion's Belt for this example. Many of us can look up in the sky and see the three stars that make up Orion's Belt on a clear night. On average, these stars are about 1,500 light years away.

A light year is that distance that light moves in a year. Light moves 5,878,625,373,183 miles in a year. So, if Orion's Belt is 1,500 light years away, that's a distance of 8,817,938,059,774,500 miles. That's almost 9 quadrillion, by the way.

Now, similar to the way sound moves, we cannot see something until the light has traveled from the object, to our eyes, right? So, if Orion didn't pay his electric bill and his belt's stars got shut off by Con Ed, we would not see his pants fall off for 1,500 years.

More amazing to me, is how, regardless of those stars' size, that our human eyes can SEE that from so far away. Mario, explain this some if you can, please.

Freaks me out.

[cancidas]

phil, seriously, you ok? when i get that bored i usually whip up some home-made explosives or go to the range. you're welcome to tag along next time...

[PhilDernerJr]

I was actually working on expansion for the website. I guess my mind went a bit far with "expansion" when I started thinking about starting AlphaCenturiAviation.com

[wunaladreamin]

If Orion's pants fell down I don't think we'll be seein much. I hear he's got the "Irish Curse". :D

[hiss srq]

Phil, pass some of that stuff this way.

[Matt Molnar]

I was really looking forward to seeing this space show movie thing at Hayden Planetarium this past summer. It's well made, narrated by Robert Redford, great animations of the Big Bang and the planets and it goes through how far away all these other galaxies are and how many trillions of stars live in them. By the end I was kinda depressed about being reminded how insignificant I am in the universal scheme of things. :|

[ChrisW]

I thought you Conservative folk still thought the world is flat?

[Midnight Mike]

I thought you Conservative folk still thought the world is flat?

Nope, we just believe God made everything! :mrgreen: :lol:

[mirrodie]

Hey Phil.

You're only accounting for distance and trying ot comprehand how we are able to see somehting so distant. But you're not taking into account the luminance of the subjects you're looking at.


Let me try and explain using my office. We've just changed our projector screens (You know, the big E and all the other letters you read on an eyechart) and are using an LCD to do the same job. When a patient comes in and lets say they take off their glasses/contacts, I might say "Can you see any letters up there" and they usually respond, "No way. All I see is a white light out there." After the exam, they can see its actually letters on a white illuminated screen. But realize they were blurry to begin with, but in reality, you can say they SAW the light.

Well in your example, yes, can see those illuminated(the stars/celestial bodies) targets out there and they have HUGE amounts of luminance, but we are only perceiving the light. WE are not seeing it clearly.

Make sense?

[ChrisW]

I thought you Conservative folk still thought the world is flat?

Nope, we just believe God made everything! :mrgreen: :lol:

Exactly the reason why there shouldn't be a conservative President.

[PhilDernerJr]

What's wrong with believing that?