So, what's the closest star to us? Of course it's the Sun. Astronomers call it a yellow dwarf star and it's about 93 million miles from us.
So what is the closest star to us other than the sun?
The Alpha Centauri system is the closest set of stars, at about 4.24-4.37 light-years away.
What is a light year? How fast is the speed of light? Light travels at approximately 186,000 mi per second. If you could move at the speed of light, you could travel around the Earth 7.5 times in one second.
So tonight, or the next time you're gazing at the stars, consider that the light emitted from the stars you're seeing, took over four years to get here.
(Scratching head)
Who's up for some Warp Drive?
Make Gitmo Great Again!! Who gave the order to stop counting votes in the swing states on the night of November 3/4, 2020?
If the sun ever flamed out it would take 8 mins before we knew about it. If it were night time and Jupiter was in the night sky, it would take another hour before it would be no longer be visible due to lack of the sun light.
Originally Posted by mauserand9mm
Originally Posted by mauserand9mm
Originally Posted by Raspy
Whatever you said...everyone knows you are a lying jerk.
That's a bold assertion. Point out where you think I lied.
Dave posts here on occasion (Star splitter screen name I think). He is about 12 miles from my house. This section of the Blueridge Mountains has pretty good dark sky conditions.
Warp drive might be fast, but what happens when you hit a marble sized pebble?
More seriously, to heck with a marble, even passing through an invisible atmosphere, such as here on earth, this kind of speed would burn you into a crispy critter.
Make Gitmo Great Again!! Who gave the order to stop counting votes in the swing states on the night of November 3/4, 2020?
Dave posts here on occasion (Star splitter screen name I think). He is about 12 miles from my house. This section of the Blueridge Mountains has pretty good dark sky conditions.
I've seen Jupiter dozens of times through my Meade telescope. I have seen Saturn and it's rings as well. The coolest thing is seeing M-42 (Orion Nebula) in all it's glory!
Dave posts here on occasion (Star splitter screen name I think). He is about 12 miles from my house. This section of the Blueridge Mountains has pretty good dark sky conditions.
I met him through a local Ham radio club a few years ago. I spent way more money on my antenna system but he gets better signal reports than I do.... Ham radio/ astrophotography it's all about location location location.
Warp drive might be fast, but what happens when you hit a marble sized pebble?
More seriously, to heck with a marble, even passing through an invisible atmosphere, such as here on earth, this kind of speed would burn you into a crispy critter.
Not to mention that accelerating instantly to FTL speeds ala Star Trek or the Millennium Falcon would leave all passengers as a one atom thick smear on the back wall of whatever compartment they happened to be in.
Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery. Hit the target, all else is twaddle!
Eric Weinstein did the Rogan podcast recently. His space travel ideas are pretty interesting.
@jameslavish
If you work 40 hrs/wk: at 5% inflation and after 5 years, you need a 28% pay raise or to work 44 more hours (*one full extra week* per month+) to make up the difference.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. -Ernest Hemingway The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.-- Edward John Phelps
My starship creates a heavily negatively charged field about 100,000 km in front of the ship, followed by another heavily positively charged field about 75,000 km in front of the ship. Anything large enough to pose a threat but small enough not to set off the proximity alarm is effectively repelled by the interior field.
It’s actually pretty simple, really.
P
Obey lawful commands. Video interactions. Hold bad cops accountable. Problem solved.
Warp drive might be fast, but what happens when you hit a marble sized pebble?
One thought on that is we've sent quite a few probes flying through the Solar System (much more crowded than interstellar space) and have yet to have a 'pebble' greatly affect one. That said, at very high speeds even hydrogen would be a problem.
That's why warp drive needs to either involve a 'higher dimension' with no matter, or folded space where you could possibly just step through to the other side, a la Heinlein's "Tunnel In The Sky". The search for planets around other stars is certainly revealing plenty of planets, although it seems only a very small fraction are likely Earthlike. That may not be a huge issue if we're able to thrive throughout the Solar System.
In the meantime, there's the entire Solar System including the Oort Cloud, offering basically unlimited resources (but likely poor hunting off Earth) for enterprising humans.
Instructor when dismissing the class informed us that the Space Shuttle had blown up during the lecture
Never will forget it
I flew from Seattle to LA. I walked into Teledyne the morning the Challenger blew up. I was trying to sell them my power supply design proposal for the F16 general aviation computer. It was like walking into a funeral. I eventually got the contract and developed the supply.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. -Ernest Hemingway The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.-- Edward John Phelps
I “took” a basic 200 level astronomy class at the UW and struggled the entire time. I was lost in the clouds (pun intended) on day one and only got more confused as the quarter progressed. I don’t know why but I just cannot wrap my head around it…the math involved didn’t help me. 😀
I’m more inclined to enjoy the pedestrian version of astronomy….National Geographic is about as deep into astronomy as I’ll go.
�Politicians are the lowest form of life on earth. Liberal Democrats are the lowest form of politician.� �General George S. Patton, Jr.
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