Huge 'star-quake' rocks Milky Way

[mubs]

Astronomers say they have been stunned by the amount of energy released in a star explosion on the far side of our galaxy...
BBC Noose (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4278005.stm)

[LunarMist]

Cool. Too bad it was not closer to Earth.

[Buck]

What a magnificent event! Thanks for sharing the article mubs.

[P5-133XL]

Cool. Too bad it was not closer to Earth.

Wishing for a mass-extinction? Or just a few of your closest relatives?

[Tea]

Wishing for a mass-extinction? Or just a few of your closest relatives?

Hey! Knock it off!

[Mercutio]

Just the republicans.

[mubs]

All jesting aside, is Buck the only one that appreciates the significance of this event? No matter, it was worth sharing if it made even just one person ponder about this universe.

[Pradeep]

One calculation has the giant flare on SGR 1806-20 unleashing about 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts.

Enough to power a few of Prescotts :)

Thanks for the link mubs.

[Handruin]

Good link mubs, thanks for posting it. :aok:

[LunarMist]

Wishing for a mass-extinction? Or just a few of your closest relatives?

Sometimes evolution needs a little kick in the ass, so why not?

[RWIndiana]

I can't even fathom the infinite size and complexity of the earth and our own sun, not to mention the trillions of other stars much larger than the sun. Whenever I start thinking about something like this, it just staggars me. It's hard not to get religious (not that I try not to). Or at least philisophical.
No, Buck isn't the only one who appreciates the awesome nature of this sort of thing.

[Tannin]

That is one of the things I really like about the outback. I am not religious, but I nevertheless undergo an experience that I speculate is much the same thing as religous awe.

Sometimes I have found myself many many miles away from any other human - out on the treeless Nullarbor recently, for example - on a cloudless night, with no artificial lights for hundreds of kilometres. I look up and the stars are so clear and bright that my vision seems to sink into them; they take on a 3-D form and I start to appreciate a tiny part of the immense scale that the universe is built on, and the tiny, fragile existence that I lead here on this insignificant little round ball. At that point, I sometimes feel an absurd need to get down close to the groud and hold on tight before I float off into the infinite.

[i]

Sometimes I have found myself many many miles away from any other human - out on the treeless Nullarbor recently, for example - on a cloudless night, with no artificial lights for hundreds of kilometres. I look up and the stars are so clear and bright that my vision seems to sink into them; they take on a 3-D form and I start to appreciate a tiny part of the immense scale that the universe is built on, and the tiny, fragile existence that I lead here on this insignificant little round ball. At that point, I sometimes feel an absurd need to get down close to the groud and hold on tight before I float off into the infinite.

Not to sound flippant ... same here.

I remember being on the roof of a building with some friends once, explaining why everything in the night sky was moving through the field of view of my telescope. I gestured out towards the eastern horizon and explained that everything - all the buildings, trees, the land itself - everything you could see was essentially rolling forwards in that direction, and consequently it made the stars seem as though they were moving up over us towards the west. Being up so high like that, with a clear view of the entire eastern horizon, and describing it all as being on a giant ball of rock, rolling through space ... well, it hit home for all of us.

[Groltz]

So how far in the past did the event occur if the star is 50,000 light-years away? In other words, how long did it take it to reach us....Any astronomy buffs?

[blakerwry]

Assuming that the energy travelled in a straight line... err... probably 50,000 years...

[Howell]

Sometimes I have found myself many many miles away from any other human - out on the treeless Nullarbor recently, for example - on a cloudless night, with no artificial lights for hundreds of kilometres. I look up and the stars are so clear and bright that my vision seems to sink into them; they take on a 3-D form and I start to appreciate a tiny part of the immense scale that the universe is built on, and the tiny, fragile existence that I lead here on this insignificant little round ball. At that point, I sometimes feel an absurd need to get down close to the groud and hold on tight before I float off into the infinite.

I have this exact same response, to the letter. :) Especially if there are no trees or ridges to give a visual cue that you are not in space.

The difference in my experience is that this helps me to understand the depths of God's love if I am so small in the grand scheme and yet still loved.

[GIANT]

There have actually been sonic (i.e. -- not electromagnetic radiation) waves observed in space somewhat recently.

[RWIndiana]

Tannin, your post says it all. That is exactly how I feel.


Howell, so true!

[LunarMist]

Maybe there is something missing here, but even in some of the most isolated and unusual places I don't receive any mystical vibes. And I am well-traveled. Having visited all seven continents, I have seen some amazing events in nature.

[mubs]

As usual, the eloquent Tannin verbalizes easily what many of us struggle to crystallize and express.

[Tannin]

The difference in my experience is that this helps me to understand the depths of God's love if I am so small in the grand scheme and yet still loved.

It is something a little like this for me too, Howell. I spend at least a little time every day, and quite often practically the entire waking day, trying to understand things: why is the sky blue, why does this species of plant only grow on the north side of the sand dunes, why does the hill over there still stand when all else around it has eroded away, why does the Square-tailed Kite have such huge and unweildy wings but occupy timbered country, why have the herbivorous marsupials prospered under human rule while the omnivores are in trouble and the carnivores are almost wiped out, why are rabbits so hard to eradicate, why is our sun so relatively stable and benign, why do viruses self-replicate .... on and on, I ask questions without end.

And sometimes I take that pitifully small amount of knowledge I have garnered about this trivially insignificant ball of semi-molten iron with impurities floating on the surface, and project it out into the stars. I am at once astonished that this little blob of wet protein - incredibly small and insignificant on a world scale, and that world scale is itself trivially insignificant compared even to Jupiter, never mind the galaxy and the galaxies beyond - can comprehend even a small part of the celestial scene laid out before me. How is it possible for such a small thing - maybe one billion billion billion billionth of the whole - to grasp any part of the great thing?

Truly, the universe is wonderful in its subtlety.

And at the same time, I am struck dumb by the immensity of the task before me: how can I even dream about trying to know or understand the universe? I see the knowledge that is in my head and compare it to the knowledge that one would need to take on the task of understanding properly, and see it as a very small thing indeed, too small to even describe or put a number on. So, in the effort to guage things better, I stop thinking about my own knowledge and expand my starting point to the accumulated knowledge of the entire world: of every philosopher, every scientist, every bird and plant and earthworm.

Even then, the difference between the knowledge that we hold (that's "we" as "all living creatures on this planet, past and future") and the knowledge that we need to understand is immense, unimaginably immense; perhaps in the same sort of order as the difference between a single virus and the endless forest that covered an entire planet back in Triassic times.

It is at this point that I feel the need to hold onto the soil with my hands so as not to float away into the infinite.

[Tannin]

The difference in my experience is that this helps me to understand the depths of God's love if I am so small in the grand scheme and yet still loved.

It is something a little like this for me too, Howell. I spend at least a little time every day, and quite often practically the entire waking day, trying to understand things: why is the sky blue, why does this species of plant only grow on the north side of the sand dunes, why does the hill over there still stand when all else around it has eroded away, why does the Square-tailed Kite have such huge and unweildy wings but occupy timbered country, why have the herbivorous marsupials prospered under human rule while the omnivores are in trouble and the carnivores are almost wiped out, why are rabbits so hard to eradicate, why is our sun so relatively stable and benign, why do viruses self-replicate .... on and on, I ask questions without end.

And sometimes I take that pitifully small amount of knowledge I have garnered about this trivially insignificant ball of semi-molten iron with impurities floating on the surface, and project it out into the stars. I am at once astonished that this little blob of wet protein - incredibly small and insignificant on a world scale, and that world scale is itself trivially insignificant compared even to Jupiter, never mind the galaxy and the galaxies beyond - can comprehend even a small part of the celestial scene laid out before me. How is it possible for such a small thing - maybe one billion billion billion billionth of the whole - to grasp any part of the great thing?

Truly, the universe is wonderful in its subtlety.

And at the same time, I am struck dumb by the immensity of the task before me: how can I even dream about trying to know or understand the universe? I see the knowledge that is in my head and compare it to the knowledge that one would need to take on the task of understanding properly, and see it as a very small thing indeed, too small to even describe or put a number on. So, in the effort to guage things better, I stop thinking about my own knowledge and expand my starting point to the accumulated knowledge of the entire world: of every philosopher, every scientist, every bird and plant and earthworm.

Even then, the difference between the knowledge that we hold (that's "we" as "all living creatures on this planet, past and future") and the knowledge that we need to understand is immense, unimaginably immense; perhaps in the same sort of order as the difference between a single virus and the endless forest that covered an entire planet back in Triassic times.

It is at this point that I feel the need to hold onto the soil with my hands so as not to float away into the infinite.

[Tannin]

Yuo see? even two of us can't manage it! :)

[mubs]

Just how big (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050302/ap_on_sc/brf_galaxies_under_dust) is the place we live in??

[Dïscfärm]

Just how big (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050302/ap_on_sc/brf_galaxies_under_dust) is the place we live in??

No bigger that we thought a few years ago.

The only difference is that we keep seeing (discovering) objects that we haven't seen before in a universe of a known volume.

http://ipac.jpl.nasa.gov/media_images/ssc2005-08b_small.jpg

[JSF]

"...in a universe of known volume."

This statement triggers a little venture into theology.

I believe in a God who does not know time. By premise He is unchangeable in His omnipotence.

Therefore, His single act of creation is ongoing in our time-limited experience.

This known volume, if we indeed know it, can only be known in one instant of time. What is this volume in God’s universe of at least four dimensions (time being the fourth)?

From our perspective, is there anything beyond this volume?

As Tannin eloquently infers, the magnificence of what we see is beyond our description. What might God reveal about what we do not see?

[i]

is there anything beyond this volume?

Packaging peanuts.

[Computer Generated Baby]

"...in a universe of known volume."

This statement triggers a little venture into theology...

Sorry, I was only speaking of the physical universe, of which volume (Length x Width x Height) is the preferred metric.






"Splash," "Explorer," "Platform," "Dïscfärm," "Computer Generated Baby," "Onomatopoeic," "GIANT," "iGary," "Corvair," and ". NUT" make no representation about the suitability or accuracy of the previously mentioned statements in this post, and make no warranties -- either express or implied -- including the merchantability and fitness of this information for any particular purpose known to man or to any species of the plant or animal kingdoms.

[LunarMist]

Why is vastness difficult to comprehend? Is it any more difficult than comprehending molecular modeling where the goal is to change a moiety by a fraction of a nm? That is why log scales are an everyday part of life. ;)

[Tannin]

the magnificence of what we see is beyond our description. What might God reveal about what we do not see?
.... and what poor ability might we have to comprehend the revelation?

[jtr1962]

is there anything beyond this volume?

Packaging peanuts.
Why not bubble wrap? :mrgrn:

[Tea]

Because bubble wrap is made from petroleum. Packing peanuts are made out of rice. (Try one: you can eat them. Taste like slightly stale rice crackers.) No creator worth his salt would use nasty petrchemicals when there is plenty of good, natural rice around.

[JSF]

"Splash," "Explorer," "Platform," "Dïscfärm," "Computer Generated Baby," "Onomatopoeic," "GIANT," "iGary," "Corvair," and ". NUT"

I know that you are only concerned with the physical universe. My preoccupation is with the bigger question: “What contains the universe if the universe is finite?” Perhaps our description of volume fails when dimensions are so large that relativity comes into play? We are told that the universe is expanding. What is it expanding into? More empty space? Or is space only a property of the physical universe?

Enlighten me.

[Explorer]

...Packing peanuts are made out of rice. (Try one: you can eat them. Taste like slightly stale rice crackers.)

Starch. Rice or potato starch.

By the way, you would also very likely be munching down on a healthy culture of bacteria that would be munching down on the tasty starch.



“What contains the universe if the universe is finite?”

...We are told that the universe is expanding. What is it expanding into? More empty space? Or is space only a property of the physical universe?

Some people claim that space is "curved." So, it's not really expanding into anything.

Otherwise, I'm perfectly comfortable with the idea that the universe is expanding into nothingness and eternity, and that we exist between nothingness and eternity.


http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000252D.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Mahavishnu Orchestra
"Between Nothingness And Eternity"
Columbia Records, 1973

[mubs]

Why is vastness difficult to comprehend? Is it any more difficult than comprehending molecular modeling where the goal is to change a moiety by a fraction of a nm? That is why log scales are an everyday part of life.
Lunar, you're either not a normal human being (intellectually and otherwise magnitudes more advanced that John Doe) or you're missing out on something magical and wonderful.

[LunarMist]

Why is vastness difficult to comprehend? Is it any more difficult than comprehending molecular modeling where the goal is to change a moiety by a fraction of a nm? That is why log scales are an everyday part of life.
Lunar, you're either not a normal human being (intellectually and otherwise magnitudes more advanced that John Doe) or you're missing out on something magical and wonderful.

It is probably 4.6% of the former and 95.4% of the latter.