A question of Astronomical proportions

Nathan said:
Actually, that's 93 billion light years, which in distance is about 546.7 septillion miles (5.467 x 10^23 miles), which somehow doesn't sound like enough.
Click to expand...
bobcat said:
... and even if you could go there, how would you know when you reached that boundary. Would there be some sort of invisible wall flying out into nothing, and would it continue on forever?
Click to expand...
It's my puny understanding that the parameters/borders/size of the universe are basically made up by physicists and astronomers because the actual measurements are unknown and likely unknowable. Evidence is used; scientists aren't simply pulling numbers out of the air ...well, technically, they are, but what I mean is, they aren't dreaming these measurements up, but they are invented devices based on evidence and projections. And these scientists and researchers are constantly disproving each others evidence-based theories....hundreds of them over the past 20 years.

I don't doubt that physicists and astronomers are as befuddled as laymen like myself.
 
Murrmurr said:
It's my puny understanding that the parameters/borders/size of the universe are basically made up by physicists and astronomers because the actual measurements are unknown and likely unknowable. Evidence is used; scientists aren't simply pulling numbers out of the air ...well, technically, they are, but what I mean is, they aren't dreaming these measurements up, but they are invented devices based on evidence and projections. And these scientists and researchers are constantly disproving each others evidence-based theories....hundreds of them over the past 20 years.

I don't doubt that physicists and astronomers are as befuddled as laymen like myself.
Click to expand...
I think you're right. They do use tools like red shift detection and Hubble's Law, but even then, given the vast distances, variables, and unknowns, it's likely just a best guess that could be way off. GIGO.

It's probably like predicting the conditions after a major nuclear exchange. You can know all about the weapons, the destruction potential, and climate models, but no one really knows how it would change life on earth, and let's hope we never find out.
 
@Nathan

Are you staying up-to-date on the object named 31/ATLAS ?

Scientists are all excited because it's only the 3rd interstellar object to enter our galaxy within the past decade. Of course, they acknowledge it's the 3rd verifiable/observed interstellar object, and that it could be the millionth for all we know, but anyway, it has some very unusual characteristics and is on an unusual trajectory at a very unusual speed.

It will likely be observable through regular home telescopes of decent quality in Nov and Dec, and probably longer.
 
bobcat said:
I think you're right. They do use tools like red shift detection and Hubble's Law, but even then, given the vast distances, variables, and unknowns, it's likely just a best guess that could be way off. GIGO.

It's probably like predicting the conditions after a major nuclear exchange. You can know all about the weapons, the destruction potential, and climate models, but no one really knows how it would change life on earth, and let's hope we never find out.
Click to expand...
That's a really good comparison. (y)
 
fuzzybuddy said:
One thing I've always wondered about is how long is "now". We have "before" and "after", but what exactly is "now". Is 'now' like a movie film-just one pic/event per time, or is it continuous and unbroken? How long is "now" or does "now' even exist? :unsure:
Click to expand...
Now is all that exists. The past is gone, the future is unknown. No matter what time it is, it's always now.
 
Murrmurr said:
@Nathan

Are you staying up-to-date on the object named 31/ATLAS ?

Scientists are all excited because it's only the 3rd interstellar object to enter our galaxy within the past decade. Of course, they acknowledge it's the 3rd verifiable/observed interstellar object, and that it could be the millionth for all we know, but anyway, it has some very unusual characteristics and is on an unusual trajectory at a very unusual speed.

It will likely be observable through regular home telescopes of decent quality in Nov and Dec, and probably longer.
Click to expand...
Oh yes, mostly from the media attention and the speculation that 31/ATLAS may not be natural. I think it's natural, but the sci-fi buff in me wants i31/ATLAS to be alien extraterrestrial in origin. Back in the '70s I read Arthur C. Clark's Rendezvous with Rama, a story that could have been inspired by an object like i31/ATLAS.
 
What if you have a time machine and travel forward or back? Would you travel to a different now from your own perspective? What about people already existing in the past or future, is it actually now for them?

If you have the ability to time travel, it seems now would be infinite?
 
Nathan said:
Oh yes, mostly from the media attention and the speculation that 31/ATLAS may not be natural. I think it's natural, but the sci-fi buff in me wants i31/ATLAS to be alien extraterrestrial in origin. Back in the '70s I read Arthur C. Clark's Rendezvous with Rama, a story that could have been inspired by an object like i31/ATLAS.
Click to expand...
That was a great book!

I hope it's tech, but doubt very much that it is. It sure is interesting, tho'. My grandson said he'll be setting up his telescope sometime around the end of Oct. Definitely hoping it's powerful enough for some cool photos. I'll post a few if he manages to get some.

Meanwhile, NASA's telescopes and I think Starlink satellites will be taking some, and the big earthbound ones will (/are).
 
Last edited:
outlander said:
What if you have a time machine and travel forward or back? Would you travel to a different now from your own perspective? What about people already existing in the past or future, is it actually now for them?

If you have the ability to time travel, it seems now would be infinite?
Click to expand...
I think time travel would prove that it is. I believe it would prove that time doesn't exist...that it's a construct.
 
Since this thread has now run its course, will repeat this older post...

matter/energy/fields/stuff created or has always existed

The infinite and eternity are concepts that even our greatest human minds have trouble with.

Even our most respected cosmologist scientists would consider any opinions to the question highly speculative. Not something we humans can ever know like "What was before the Big Bang", but can indeed offer ideas upon.

Some may offer that God created it all and could do so because he exists in some other dimension, if other dimensions are even possible. Scientists would respond with "then if God exists what created him", an infinite regression as well as the notion of actions without forces. The absolutely incredible fine tuning we find in our current universe, points to a god possibly being credible.

Some scientist would relate everything began out of nothing with the Big Bang and because in their opinion time began then too, there is not an infinite eternal past. But then other scientists will argue absolute infinite 3D space and absolute time are independent of our universe, even if our mass/energy/fields/stuff is affected so.

Some scientists speculate our Big Bang universe is just the current universe from an infinite number of past cycling Big Bang universes. In that case, mass/energy/fields/stuff would have always existed so did not need to be created.

A few scientists have speculated Big Bangs are a lab creation of a God or race of Ultimate Intelligent Entities. The reason is due to the absolutely incredible fine tuning we find in our current universe that supports the notion it all just isn't coincidental and we are just "lucky". If that is true, then that also points to mass/energy/fields/stuff always existing, not needing being created.

Personally, I like logic that mass/energy/fields/stuff across infinite eternity past, always existing thus never needed to be created. If so, that does not mean what we find in our current universe is all there ever has been across the infinite. It may be that stuff tends to be local and beyond is in part or all truly empty. Compared to infinite absolute 3D space, even the 90 billion light year width of our Big Bang universe, is an infinitesimal spec.

If stuff is here, it is more logical to argue our spec is not so special that it is not the only one. It may also be possible that within the infinite past, the infinite 3D space with stuff has evolved over time from a great many Big Bangs where no life existed to one where life developed and evolved with eventual UIEs that since that occurred have "fine tuned" subsequent mass/energy/fields/stuff.
 
I've been there. It's time to reveal myself as an alien sent to Earth to decide the ultimate fate of humanity.

I was going to recommend total extermination based on what I have observed.

Then I infiltrated this forum and came to the conclusion that there are some groups of humans that are pretty damn awesome (y)
 
Last edited:
outlander said:
I've been there. It's time to reveal myself as an alien sent to Earth to decide the ultimate fate of humanity.

I was going to recommend total extermination based on what I have observed.

Then I infiltrated this forum and came to the conclusion that there are some groups of humans that are pretty damn awesome (y)
Click to expand...
We are grateful you called off the Death Star.
Also sorry we didn't send a welcome basket when you arrived. We weren't really sure what aliens ate.
Careful on the way home & stay under the light speed limit. Don't want to get pulled over and get the old license revoked.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top