Your favourite Solar System facts

[danski]

That the world is going to end.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

That the world is going to end.

And the Earth vapourised.

 

[T & P]

That the world is going to end.

I find that extremely depressing, which is of course stupid seeing as how many millions of times away my lifetime span it is. But as an atheist the thought of any trace of all life on Earth being obliterated without trace kind of gives me the creeps, though I would imagine humans would have mastered interplanetary colonisation well before the Sun goes supernova.

I remember watching one of those Brian Cox space programmes he does, and he was cheerfully explaining how at some point the whole Universe will almost certainly experience a Big Crunch event that will obliterate everything that ever existed. It was one of the most soul-destroying thoughts that have ever crossed my mind.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I would imagine humans would have mastered interplanetary colonisation well before the Sun goes supernova.

The Sun won't go supernova as it's too little to do that. It'll swell up into a red giant and engulf the Earth and gradually destroy it. The oceans will boil away long before then so the planet will more or less be a sterilised rock floating through space.

 

[Signal 11]

he was cheerfully explaining how at some point the whole Universe will almost certainly experience a Big Crunch event

It won't.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The Sun won't go supernova as it's too little to do that. It'll swell up into a red giant and engulf the Earth and gradually destroy it. The oceans will boil away long before then so the planet will more or less be a sterilised rock floating through space.

I can tell this pleases you quite a lot.

 

[Crispy]

I remember watching one of those Brian Cox space programmes he does, and he was cheerfully explaining how at some point the whole Universe will almost certainly experience a Big Crunch event that will obliterate everything that ever existed. It was one of the most soul-destroying thoughts that have ever crossed my mind.

It's worse than that. The universe will expand forever, the stars will burn out, space will expand so far that not even the light from other galaxies can reach us, the black holes will evaporate, and matter itself will decompose into a soup of utterly frigid particles, getting ever thinner and thinner.

Timeline of the far future - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[strung out]

It's worse than that. The universe will expand forever, the stars will burn out, space will expand so far that not even the light from other galaxies can reach us, the black holes will evaporate, and matter itself will decompose into a soup of utterly frigid particles, getting ever thinner and thinner.

Timeline of the far future - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Sounds just like farmerbarleymow's cup of tea

 

[T & P]

It's worse than that. The universe will expand forever, the stars will burn out, space will expand so far that not even the light from other galaxies can reach us, the black holes will evaporate, and matter itself will decompose into a soup of utterly frigid particles, getting ever thinner and thinner.

Timeline of the far future - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'll bet there'll still be fucking wasps about, though.

 

[2hats]

Baryonic decay might put an upper limit on any recognisable, indeed inhabitable, universe, somewhere between an octillion and tredecillion years from now (other scenarios are available).

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I'll bet there'll still be fucking wasps about, though.

Intergalactic space wasps.

 

[fishfinger]

Intergalactic space wasps.

That's no planet!

 

[Jay Park]

Ooh, that's a good one - explains the difference between a day and a year (astronomically speaking ) and how even those simple things can be so wildly different than on Earth.

Another example: Venus rotates the other way (will look up the posh astronomical term...), so the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east

‘slowtates’ ?

 

[Mumbles274]

That's no planet!

View attachment 236292

Moon!

 

[Jay Park]

if you sent a typical urbanite to mercury without a space suit they would last 93 seconds after descending from the vehicle to the chillly side of the planet; 5.7 seconds on the sunny side.

I’ll volunteer for the beaches

 

[Pickman's model]

I’ll volunteer for the beaches

the trick is to be the urbanite in the space vehicle who'll come back, not the miserable wretch doomed to a painful if quick death

 

[Jay Park]

the trick is to be the urbanite in the space vehicle who'll come back, not the miserable wretch doomed to a painful if quick death

6 seconds not that long, you ever clenched an ice-cube for 5 minutes? Apparently it’s akin to childbirth.

 

[Jay Park]

Coupled with the difficulties of washing proerly in zero-G, the space station apparently reeks

you’d not fancy a trip?

 

[Pickman's model]

6 seconds not that long, you ever clenched an ice-cube for 5 minutes? Apparently it’s akin to childbirth.

yeh but you wouldn't want to be the urb who people wanted dead so much there'd be a whip-round to send you millions of miles to an ignominious death at great expense.

 

[Jay Park]

yeh but you wouldn't want to be the urb who people wanted dead so much there'd be a whip-round to send you millions of miles to an ignominious death at great expense.

that’s very dark of you to say.

 

[Jay Park]

Vacuum pumps are supposed to help with that, so maybe they could stick their dick out of an airlock.

new ISS mission to try new, extra-terrestrial measures for the cure to erectile dysfunction

 

[fishfinger]

Moon!

I forgot my nerd pants today

 

[Jay Park]

I forgot my nerd pants today

right

 

[jonnyd1978]

This thread has directed my brain to some existential questions.

 

[Jay Park]

This thread has directed my brain to some existential questions.

posit them, please

 

[jonnyd1978]

posit them, please

The concept of nothing is incomprehensible to me. How did nothing begin. What came before, what's after. What created it.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

What came before, what's after.

Time itself is a property of this universe, so there was no before and there will be no after.

 

[Pickman's model]

Time itself is a property of this universe, so there was no before and there will be no after.

all property is theft

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The concept of nothing is incomprehensible to me. How did nothing begin. What came before, what's after. What created it.

Yeah, this has bothered me for years.

Time itself is a property of this universe, so there was no before and there will be no after.

That doesn't really help.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Yeah, this has bothered me for years.



That doesn't really help.

Think of it a bit like temperature. All human experience is in the realm of a bit cold to a bit hot, so you'd think there's no limit to how cold something can be - whatever the record cold is, just go a bit colder. But that's not the case, there is a physical constraint placed on the property of temperature, namely absolute zero where all molecular activity comes to a standstill. There is no such thing as -1K.

Time is similar. However far back you go, you'd think can always go 1 second earlier. Except you can't, because there is a physical constraint on time (namely the existence of this universe) which means there is a time zero*. There is no such thing as before time zero.

*This is a simplified version which assumes time as linear. Not strictly true, but for practical purposes let's go with it.