# Something to wrap our minds around



## bullethead (May 17, 2011)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110516/sc_afp/spaceastronomyexoplanet

The final sentence in the article is really eye opening. "A spaceship travelling close to light speed would take more than 20 years to get there, while our present rocket technology would take 300,000 years."

This is the sort of thing that people cannot fathom. Facts are hard enough to absorb and most likely why it is easier to believe in simpler and totally imaginary things.


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## TripleXBullies (May 17, 2011)

I am sure there is more than the wobble theory to figure out if it's in the goldilocks zone, but it's hard for me to understand how we can figure that much out about it. 

Either way, that's a close neighbor... 300,000 rocket years away. With billions more farther away. That is hard to wrap a mind around.

I can't wait to see Ted have a field day here.


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## Thanatos (May 17, 2011)

bullethead said:


> http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110516/sc_afp/spaceastronomyexoplanet
> 
> The final sentence in the article is really eye opening. "A spaceship travelling close to light speed would take more than 20 years to get there, while our present rocket technology would take 300,000 years."
> 
> This is the sort of thing that people cannot fathom. Facts are hard enough to absorb and most likely why it is easier to believe in simpler and totally imaginary things.



I love these articles, but it is sad how long it will take us to get to one of these planets.


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## atlashunter (May 17, 2011)

Hard to comprehend. And that's a nearby star.

Check this out.


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## WTM45 (May 17, 2011)

And, in the time it takes to get there (20 years at the speed of light) the planet or its star might burn up or decay.  That would suck.
Imagine having to turn around and head back because halfway there (ten years into the trip, and at the speed of light) the target you had lined up in the ship's observation telescope vanished!  Or exploded!
You would know that happened ten years before telescopes on Earth observed it.

It most certainly will not be in the same exact location in space as where its 20 year old light is being viewed today.  The shot would have to be precisely calculated on its pre-confirmed movements and orbits.

Care to imagine what a puny little space pebble would do to a spacecraft moving at the speed of light?

Space is one BIG place.


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## Thanatos (May 20, 2011)

WTM45 said:


> And, in the time it takes to get there (20 years at the speed of light) the planet or its star might burn up or decay.  That would suck.
> Imagine having to turn around and head back because halfway there (ten years into the trip, and at the speed of light) the target you had lined up in the ship's observation telescope vanished!  Or exploded!
> You would know that happened ten years before telescopes on Earth observed it.
> 
> ...



I love looking into the sky at night and thinking about some of the light I'm viewing is coming from stars that died millions of years ago...truly humbling.


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## CAL (May 20, 2011)

Thanatos said:


> I love looking into the sky at night and thinking about some of the light I'm viewing is coming from stars that died millions of years ago...truly humbling.



I agree and what is humbling to me is to try to fathom there is no end to the heavens.They go on forever.


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## TripleXBullies (May 20, 2011)

So I guess you can't see the end.. Did you see the beginning of them?


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## ted_BSR (May 20, 2011)

atlashunter said:


> Hard to comprehend. And that's a nearby star.
> 
> Check this out.



Pretty cool Atlas, I mad it for 3 minutes before the horrible music drove me nuts.

With all that science, and terms of time like 300,000 years (from the op), I find it hard to believe that anyone can comprehend, let alone buy into the theories of the earth being a couple million years old. How can you even pretend to imagine or comprehend it? All I have to say, is that faith is alive and well with the non-God believeing crowd.


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## TripleXBullies (May 20, 2011)

Sure there's faith involved with things, but for me, the things I have some faith are things I see some kind of proof and logic to... Or that I can physically see or experience in some way.


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## bullethead (May 20, 2011)

ted_BSR said:


> Pretty cool Atlas, I mad it for 3 minutes before the horrible music drove me nuts.
> 
> With all that science, and terms of time like 300,000 years (from the op), I find it hard to believe that anyone can comprehend, let alone buy into the theories of the earth being a couple million years old. How can you even pretend to imagine or comprehend it? All I have to say, is that faith is alive and well with the non-God believeing crowd.



It makes perfect sense that the earth is at least that old and it took all those years to get where we are now. The position of the continents and the evolution of species are good enough examples to back up those years. While it is hard, almost unimaginable and uncomprehensible to fathom all that time, to me it makes much more sense than saying an imaginable being did it all in ways our minds COULD comprehend.


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## WTM45 (May 20, 2011)

Thanatos said:


> I love looking into the sky at night and thinking about some of the light I'm viewing is coming from stars that died millions of years ago...truly humbling.



Me too, my friend.  Me too.


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