The Universe

[Confidemus]

Hiya pals.

What would you say the 9th biggest object to orbit the sun is? Ex-planet Pluto? Wrong.. It's Eris, the dwarf planet.

Here's a picture I took of it yesterday:

You can see it's moon, Dysnomia, just to the left.

What the f**k is Eris, I hear you cry?

Well, discovered in 2005, Eris is three times further away from the Sun that Pluto is and is 27% more massive than Pluto, although recent discoveries place it around the same size as Pluto.

It was initially given the title of tenth planet in the Solar System, but was reclassified to being a dwarf planet along with Pluto, Ceres, Haumea and Makemake.

Eris and it's moon Dysnomia are currently the most distant known natural objects in the solar system.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Hiya pals.

What would you say the 9th biggest object to orbit the sun is?.

Jupiter's biggest moon Titan!

[Ric]

Jupiter's biggest moon Titan!

The problem here is that fiddy has left out the rather operable word "directly".

The dwarf planets directly orbit the sun, while satellites directly orbit their host planet, while technically orbiting the Sun at the same time.

[Ric]

In Our Time (on R4) covered relativity today. It's not so much a detailed look at it more a summary, with it covering where the two branches, special and general, differ from Newtonian physics and how Einstein's theories were received within the scientific community.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot

You can get IoT via the iPlayer or podcast. I would recommend the latter as the BBC have the entire back catalogue of IoT. Not just science based these are great programs if you want to get an idea of a subject without delving too much into the minutia. Here is the list for the science based podcasts... http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/in-our-time/archive/science/all

[Confidemus]

The problem here is that fiddy has left out the rather operable word "directly".

The dwarf planets directly orbit the sun, while satellites directly orbit their host planet, while technically orbiting the Sun at the same time.

Thanks Ric, you're like my own wee personal auto-correct!

I apologise. Direct orbit is what I meant and should have said.

[cowboy]

why cant you go faster than the speed of light?

hypothetically, if you built a huge big engine, and had an infinite amount of power, couldn't you just keep climbing the gears until eventually you were going faster than light? obviously you'd need a bloody good guidance system to stop you running into things before you saw them, but is it possible?

[Ric]

Do you want the simple or the complicated answer?

The simple one is that as you reach the speed of light, time slows down. This is called time dilation. It may be possible to reach near the speed of light, but sadly the amount of energy required to do that is immense. There is also the problem that as our vision is based on light, meaning travelling near that speed would, as you'd expect, cause numerous problems for our eyesight.

Edited to add: "Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws." - D.Adams

Edited June 6, 2013 by Ric

[cowboy]

thanks, but is there a specific reason that the speed of light is the speed that it is?

[Ric]

thanks, but is there a specific reason that the speed of light is the speed that it is?

Oooft. I don't suppose "because it just is" counts?

In terms of why it is the speed it is means having to go through Maxwell's electro-dynamics equations, and specifically the way waves work in a vacuum. It's quite detailed so I'll just link to it in Wikipedia... http://bit.ly/11uZHhV

Edit: P&B really doesn't like URLs with hash values.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Ric

[Confidemus]

On the point of creating an engine or vehicle to go faster than light, other than the problems Ric alluded to, as I said earlier in the thread, to get an object the size of a bowling ball up to 99% of the speed of light would take all the energy used on Earth in a week.

[grumswall]

The biggest thing iv taken from this thread and reading elsewhere is that, we have a very limited knowledge. Maybe in centurys to come we can understand things but for now we are merely a gateway into knowledge for future generations in the hope mankind can thrive (deep i know)

[Confidemus]

The biggest thing iv taken from this thread and reading elsewhere is that, we have a very limited knowledge. Maybe in centurys to come we can understand things but for now we are merely a gateway into knowledge for future generations in the hope mankind can thrive (deep i know)

As the great Carl Sagan once said:

“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

[~~~]

Channel 5 are showing a moon landing documentary

Did we land on the moon?

With interviews from "moon hoax investigators"

Edited June 6, 2013 by Enrico Annoni

[Confidemus]

Channel 5 are showing a moon landing documentary

Did we land on the moon?

With interviews from "moon hoax investigators"

If it wasn't for E4, Channel 5 would be the most pointless television channel in Christendom.

[Granny Danger]

The universe is not as big as people think.

[Mr. Brightside]

As the great Carl Sagan once said:

“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

Great quote however we've barely dipped our toe in the Cosmic Ocean to see the temperature IMO.

[~~~]

If it wasn't for E4, Channel 5 would be the most pointless television channel in Christendom.

I'm watching it on Channel 5 + 1

[Mr. Brightside]

The universe is not as big as people think.

[Confidemus]

Great quote however we've barely dipped our toe in the Cosmic Ocean to see the temperature IMO.

Seeing as how you'd have to travel at 186,000 miles a second for 150 billion years to traverse the fucker, and that's not counting for expansion, we're not even on the beach.

[Ric]

The biggest thing iv taken from this thread and reading elsewhere is that, we have a very limited knowledge.

Depends on the context, if you are talking about the basic rules which govern our Universe then I would disagree with you and say we know a surprisingly large part.

Maybe in centurys to come we can understand things but for now we are merely a gateway into knowledge for future generations in the hope mankind can thrive (deep i know)

This already happened. Just think how far we have come in the last century (or couple of centuries, if you wish to expand it beyond just the cosmos). We are reaping the seeds sown in the early 1900's like relativity or quantum theory.

The universe is not as big as people think.

While people may laugh at that comment, but I genuinely think you are right. Again it's a contextual thing, we think the Universe is big and all our results show it to be fucking big, but I feel that there is going to be a trick in the tail which will affect how we interpret those results.