The Universe

[Ric]

Once more, dummy spitting at it's finest.

And I didn't claim it was all my work. You think I have all that in my head? Fair play to you for copying and pasting, then googling my posts in a vain attempt to prove how great you are.

Oh, deary, deary me...

First off if you are going to just cut and paste the least you could do is provide the source otherwise people will assume it's your own work, especially as you've amended it to look that way (dime - pound and several other references). Secondly why shouldn't you have all that in your head, it's all pretty simple stuff. As for googling it, sadly I recognised the text.

It must be great being you Ric. Being alone, having an RV for a house, having and never have had a girlfriend. The loneliness must be crushing.

Poor Ric.

Classic dummy spitting. It seems that simply correcting your incomplete answer and pointing out you've been cutting and pasting your facts has got you absolutely frothing at the mouth. Are you embarrassed that you were caught out, or is it that you feel annoyed (for what reason, who knows) because someone had the audacity to add to your comments.

[Boghead ranter]

the Universe is fascinating - people squabbling is not.

Could we please leave that for EVERY other thread on P&B?

[Ric]

Could we please leave that for EVERY other thread on P&B?

I completely agree. All I did was provide a more concise answer than the one given and I've got these two flooding their keyboards with tears.

Perhaps I should ask Fiddy and Addie if I am "allowed" to post on "their" thread.

[Confidemus]

Once more, dummy spitting at it's finest.

Oh, deary, deary me...

First off if you are going to just cut and paste the least you could do is provide the source otherwise people will assume it's your own work, especially as you've amended it to look that way (dime - pound and several other references). Secondly why shouldn't you have all that in your head, it's all pretty simple stuff. As for googling it, sadly I recognised the text.

Classic dummy spitting. It seems that simply correcting your incomplete answer and pointing out you've been cutting and pasting your facts has got you absolutely frothing at the mouth. Are you embarrassed that you were caught out, or is it that you feel annoyed (for what reason, who knows) because someone had the audacity to add to your comments.

Nice try young Ricardo!! Caught out? I would have thought it was obvious, due to the text that some of it is cut and pasted. No? And I wasn't aware I had to source all the stuff I pasted? Have I broken the law? But hey, if it makes you feel better that you copied and pasted my posts to prove my posts are copied and pasted, you batter right in, flower.

10/10 for your fervent keyboard bashing.. You're a little trier, I'll give you that... Tell you what, you just continue your little crusade, I'll just enjoy the universe. Deal? x x

[Confidemus]

Anyhoo, friends, more bank holiday fun facts!

The moon is moving away from us. Each year scientists have determined that the moon moves about 3.8 cm further from the Earth. As a result, Earth’s spin has slowed by about .002 seconds every day over the course of the last century.

While most of us know that the light hitting Earth took 8 minutes to cross the 93 million miles between our skin and the surface of the Sun, did you know that the energy in those rays started their life over 30,000 years ago deep within the core of the sun? They were formed by an intense fusion reaction and spent most of those thousands of years making their way to the Sun’s surface.

[Gnash]

Certainly "our" fate will be determined considerably sooner, as we are on course to smash into the Andromeda galaxy in anywhere between 3 and 5 billion years. To suggest this would be of a minor disruption would be to suggest that Neil Lennon may be a minor bit ginger. Essentially we have a few million years to figure out how the f**k to get off this planet, out of this solar system (technically these two have already happened), out of our galaxy, out of our local cluster and finally... to somewhere safe.

Anyone fancy the odds of that happening before we either (a) manage to blow ourselves up, or (b) get taken out by something big and nasty lurking in the outer reaches of space?

What happens at the scale of our Solar System when Andromeda merges with the Milky Way is not well established at all. At one end of thinking, it's certain death for every living thing in both galaxies, at the other it's highly unlikely to cause any significant disruption as the distances between the stars are so great (at least in the outer arms).

Anyway I'll be amazed if the human race makes it that far into the future (if I make it that far into the future to be amazed, which would be even more amazing).

Ignoring the Andromeda merger, we should find ourselves a nice little orange dwarf to settle around, and take it easy for the next 20 billion years.

[Confidemus]

What happens at the scale of our Solar System when Andromeda merges with the Milky Way is not well established at all. At one end of thinking, it's certain death for every living thing in both galaxies, at the other it's highly unlikely to cause any significant disruption as the distances between the stars are so great (at least in the outer arms).

Anyway I'll be amazed if the human race makes it that far into the future (if I make it that far into the future to be amazed, which would be even more amazing).

Ignoring the Andromeda merger, we should find ourselves a nice little orange dwarf to settle around, and take it easy for the next 20 billion years.

Yep. As I said earlier, we're far more likely to have our arses roasted by the Sun dying and turning into a red giant than the Andromeda collision.

[sjc]

 

My answer is not incorrect, no matter how you spin it Richard.  And how dare you red dot my friend, you catastrophic c**t!  Yes, thats right, name calling!!!!

 

 

Correct Adders! See, whilst I do not claim to have a degree in astrophysics, I prefer to keep my information, well, interesting.  I'm no expert, I just have a fairly unhelathy obsession with the universe.  With that in mind, today's facts... commence!!!

 

Take Magnetars for example, which are neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields.

 

Even at distances of 600 miles from a magnetar, the field strength would be so great as to literally rip human tissue apart. Placed halfway between the Earth and the Moon the magnetic field would be enough to lift metal objects such as pens or paperclips from your pockets, and completely demagnetize all of the credit cards on Earth.  They are the most magnetic objects in the known universe.

 

Or how about quasars, or quasi stellar radio source, to give them their full name. They're signals from the centre of galaxies and are the most luminous objects in the universe. Quasars emit energies of millions, billions, or even trillions of electron volts. This energy exceeds the total of the light of all the stars within a galaxy. They shine anywhere from 10 to 100,000 times brighter than the Milky Way.

and there was me thinking your account had been hacked by Paulo Sergio!

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Pie & Bovril mobile app

[Addie]

I completely agree.

Then keep the chat on topic in future. Thanks in advance.

Perhaps I should ask Fiddy and Addie if I am "allowed" to post on "their" thread.

We will get back to you later on that. We are too inconsolable right now to discuss it properly.

The moon is moving away from us. Each year scientists have determined that the moon moves about 3.8 cm further from the Earth. As a result, Earth’s spin has slowed by about .002 seconds every day over the course of the last century.

The moon must have seemed massive compared to nowadays back in prehistoric times. I presume this will have a severe impact on the earth's tides each 100 years or so?

[Ric]

What happens at the scale of our Solar System when Andromeda merges with the Milky Way is not well established at all. At one end of thinking, it's certain death for every living thing in both galaxies, at the other it's highly unlikely to cause any significant disruption as the distances between the stars are so great (at least in the outer arms).

Interestingly the Milky Way has already collided with a galaxy, fairly recently too, so we have an "after" example to study. That said it was nothing the size of Andromeda.

[Confidemus]

The moon must have seemed massive compared to nowadays back in prehistoric times. I presume this will have a severe impact on the earth's tides each 100 years or so?

Well, Adlington, a billion years ago, the Moon was much closer and therefore appeared much larger: and we saw the entire Moon, not just one face as we do now. It took the Moon only twenty days to circle the Earth, and Earth's day was only eighteen hours long. Massive tides, over a km in height, would ebb and flow every few hours.

The effects aren't so severe when measure over a century though, but eventually, in a few billion years time, it will get to a state where the Earth spins exactly as fast as fast as the moon orbits. We'll then become tidally locked, where one side of the Earth will never see the moon and the other will have the moon in the sky all the time.

By that time though, the Sun will have turned into a red giant and will have frazzled all our asses. Probably.

Edited May 27, 2013 by Confidemus

[Gnash]

Confidemus and Ric have both been interesting contributors to this thread. Can we please have a truce now?

[Confidemus]

Time for a fact or two about one of my favourite stars, VY Canis Majoris:

It's about 3 billion km in diameter. So big that if it was where our Sun is now, it would extend out past the orbit of Saturn. So large in fact that it would take light 8.5 hours to travel all the way round it. An aeroplane would take 1100 years to travel round it. To put that in context, it would take light a mere 14.5 seconds to travel round our Sun!

[Farrah Swango]

Time for a fact or two about one of my favourite stars, VY Canis Majoris:

It's about 3 billion km in diameter. So big that if it was where our Sun is now, it would extend out past the orbit of Saturn. So large in fact that it would take light 8.5 hours to travel all the way round it. An aeroplane would take 1100 years to travel round it. To put that in context, it would take light a mere 14.5 seconds to travel round our Sun!

Any Neptune facts fiddy?

[Ric]

Confidemus and Ric have both been interesting contributors to this thread. Can we please have a truce now?

Thanks, although a truce would suggest that there is some sort of "battle" going on, all I've done is correct one of fiddy's answers and the toys have come out of the pram.

He's incorrectly interpreted tidal locking in the last post. Do I correct him and incur the wrath of both him and his girlfriend Addie, or do I let others read that and assume it's correct?

[Confidemus]

Any Neptune facts fiddy?

Certainly. Whereas Uranus has a pretty much featureless atmosphere, Neptune has an extremely active weather system. The Great Dark Spot is a notable part of this active atmosphere. Neptune has the fastest winds in the solar system, reaching 1,300 mph.

It's also effing cold, with temperatures at the cloud tops measured at almost -220 celsius.

[Addie]

Thanks, although a truce would suggest that there is some sort of "battle" going on, all I've done is correct one of fiddy's answers and the toys have come out of the pram.

Do I correct him and incur the wrath of both him and his girlfriend Addie, or do I let others read that and assume it's correct?

I would prefer if you leave your obsession with correcting my boyfriend alone on this occasion.

Thanks in advance.

[Confidemus]

Thanks, although a truce would suggest that there is some sort of "battle" going on, all I've done is correct one of fiddy's answers and the toys have come out of the pram.

He's incorrectly interpreted tidal locking in the last post. Do I correct him and incur the wrath of both him and his girlfriend Addie, or do I let others read that and assume it's correct?

Your post is as puerile, pedantic and immature as your jazzy new signature, but I'm prepared to let bygones be bygones.

[Ric]

See what I mean?

[Addie]

See what I mean?

On the topic of meltdowns, Jupiter's moon, Io is the most volcanic active body in our solar system. Surprising to most folk as Io is some considerably distance form the sun and has an icy surface.

.