Space now freaks me out!!!

Discussion in 'Science' started by GeddonM3, Oct 14, 2010.

  1. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    ok so i dont watch much tv at all unless its football or some other sport i like. but i do like to watch documentaries of just about anything i can find and 3 nights ago i was looking up into the sky and seeing all the stars so i figured id hit up you tube for some educational videos about space and such.

    so let me tell you, outer space is a (*)(*)(*)(*)ed scary ass place IMHO lol. i mean with all i saw about black holes and of course documentaries about asteroids and their close encounters with earth and the ones monitored that will come back to give us a scare.......(*)(*)(*)(*) im freaked out a lil now lol.

    i mean its like the Earth is seriously caught right in the middle of a freaking shooting gallery, or it seems as if the slightest thing goes wrong in space we are truly screwed.

    it reminded me how honestly small, helpless and even how totally insignificant we are compared to the rest of the known universe. we arent even a small blip on a radar when it comes to anything about space. and im sure as day that we are not alone in this gigantic universe, there has to be life elsewhere, but (*)(*)(*)(*) i think i recall a video stating it would take some od 50,000 years to reach the next galaxy of planets traveling at the speed of light to even find out lol? wtf seriously? thats kind of a bummer.

    not only am i kinda leary about space now, im totally depressed by it, its like a big ass country song lol.

    and also saw a video of some scientists who created a machine that can make a black hole ??? seriously wtf are they thinking? from what i understand you cant contain a god (*)(*)(*)(*)ed black hole. are they trying to kill everyone?
     
  2. krunkskimo

    krunkskimo New Member

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    oh yeah there are so many things that could do us in.

    T Pyxidis is just over 3,000 light years away and is due for a super nova in 10 million years. Scientist say it will have moved so far away by then it shouldnt affect us.

    I think thats a near miss in astronomical standards.

    Gamma Ray Burst could happen at any time and if i remeber correctly can be observedat least 3 times a day in a night sky.

    Suposidly the odds are earth will be hit with at least one catastrophic gamma ray burst in the entire lifetime of the planet.


    but

    at least were not these poor saps on the receiving end of this galaxy

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_F_aU5uT_8"]YouTube - Galaxy 3C321, the 'death star' galaxy[/ame]


    and the idea of rouge planets, black holes, and stars is interesting but i think higly unlikely
     
  3. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    the only thing that gives me comfort is alot of the predictions for destruction are way far after i am gone lol.

    still irks me though that just one lil blip in our solar system can cause so much damage, its insane lol.
     
  4. Sadistic-Savior

    Sadistic-Savior New Member Past Donor

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    What a lot of people dont realize is that black holes are very very small on stellar scales. If a black hole entered our solar system it might very well destroy us, but it would be a decades long process. Even the super massive black hole at the center of our galaxy only has direct influence over a few light years. The nearest star to us is over 4 light years away.

    As end-of-the-world scenarios go, there are a lot of things that are scarier than black holes, and more likely to happen. Gamma Ray Bursts come to mind.


    None of the ones we know about that come close are enough to destroy civilization. Apocalyptic impacts have literally only happened a few times in Earth's 4 billion year history.


    And yet, Humanity has managed to survive the entire length of our million-year-or-so evolutionary history. Apparently things are not quite as chaotic as those shows make them seem.


    This hysteria was generated by people freaking out about the Large Hadron Collider, who are not scientists and dont understand how black holes work.

    Black holes do leak radiation in the form of Hawking radiation. In this way they "evaporate" over time. With large black holes, this process can take an unimaginable amount of time. But the black holes we generate (and btw, it has never actually been confirmed that we generate them...its still all theory) are smaller than an atom. So they evaporate almost instantly.

    Even if these things were to be made stable somehow, there is only so much matter a black hole can consume at a time. The event horizon of a micro-black hole is so small you could live your entire life with one inside your body and never even know it was there. Even though its a black hole, its mass is still measured in atoms (or less), not "stars". Something with that small a mass would be impossible to detect at all without the help of technology.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_black_hole#Stability_of_a_micro_black_hole

    When black holes evaporate to "plank mass" they are so small that their gravitational reach is no longer large enough to reach other particles. So it is impossible for them to consume anything.


    They couldn't if they tried. The LHC is actually operating at velocities lower than what occurs between particles in our upper atmosphere already. If such collisions generated the stuff you are afraid of, it would have happened a long long time ago.

    That being said, this is still a pretty cool picture:

    [​IMG]
     
  5. Sadistic-Savior

    Sadistic-Savior New Member Past Donor

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    The catch is that they have to be within a certain distance. I think it is like 10 or 20 thousand light years. And they have to be very close (like less than 1000 light years) to be an end-of-the-world event. The ones we have observed have all been really far away, like in other galaxies.

    And I had heard the chances of us getting hit with one were actually very low...on the order of 2% during the entire lifetime of the Earth.
     
  6. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    humanity hasnt managed to survive in this situation, humanity did prevent any possible end game scenarios from happening in space thus far. and i did say things are insanely chaotic, im just mentioning all the things that could go wrong and how its pretty scary. Space is unpredictable really and we have no control over what happens what so ever. yes there are a many things that could knock us out, im just saying that it seems if one thing comes off balance in space and we are in trouble.

    we literally have no control of our fate when it comes to space is what im getting at. its pretty freaky knowing that.
     
  7. Sadistic-Savior

    Sadistic-Savior New Member Past Donor

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    It hasnt? Last I checked we were all still here. There are no current world-ending threats and none we can see in the foreseeable future.


    Thats what I'm saying though; these shows dont mention how incredibly remote the chances of these world ending scenarios are.

    There is a very real chance your plane could crash every time you fly....but what is the actual liklihood of you crashing when you get on a plane? Its not very likely. You could make similar arguments about driving or walking around in a storm or whatever.

    And the chances of THOSE events happening are vastly more likely than a black hole or gamma ray burst or asteroid impact. It isnt worth worrying about because the chances of those things happening (especially within human lifetimes) is ridiculously small.


    Space is also really really big. Things dont happen for very long stretches of time.

    It isnt all that freaky IMO when taken in that perspective.
     
  8. krunkskimo

    krunkskimo New Member

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    depends on the theory you cite. Super massive black holes like the one in the center of our galaxy are dormant and as far as we can tell does not radiate any energy. Hawkings, string, ect all attempt to explain but most are just as likely to be true as the other in the end.

    the argument is anything that is colliding with out atmosphere has the velocity to escape earths gravitational pull.

    whereas, the in the LHC, both beams are equal to each other in mass and speed. This leaves the possibility of a collision which could create a MBH that will not have the velocity to escape earths gravitational pull. Last i herd was 47,000 MPH? I cant remeber it was so long ago .

    If it fails to escape earths gravitational pull it will eventually settle in the core of the earth and consume faster and faster
     
  9. sicsemperxuxa

    sicsemperxuxa Banned

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    I guess we can scratch this guy from the Star Fleet Intern Program.
     
  10. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    if humanity cant control what goes on in outer space we havent survived anything, just fortunate nothing has happened to wipe us out.
     
  11. Sadistic-Savior

    Sadistic-Savior New Member Past Donor

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    I have seen no alternative theories so far.


    Hawking radiation is accepted by most scientists. So much so that it is considered a fact in the astro physics community.


    That is not necessarily true. Atmospheric drag would reduce the velocity of anything entering the atmosphere. It would depend on the object's mass and velocity (and probably volume as well).


    It would not have to, for reasons listed above in my previous post.

    But yes, it could. Because it's mass is so low and it's velocity (given to it from the impact) is so great. They are so small, they would hardly interact with matter on earth anyway:

    It is like firing a bullet through a mesh fence. It is very likely that it will pass through without effect. But even if it his one of the wires, it will hardly have an effect on the rest of the fence.


    Micro black holes have event horizons that are subatomic in size. They can only consume an atom at a time at best (and usually less than that). It would take billions of years for them to even become noticeable, even assuming they came to rest inside earth anyway.

    But their velocity + their small size means they will be shot into space anyway. The earth's gravity is not sufficient to capture them.

    Big blackholes are only scary because of their mass. Micro black holes have very little mass...exponentially less than that of your fingernail. They do not work in the same way as macro-black holes.
     
  12. Sadistic-Savior

    Sadistic-Savior New Member Past Donor

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    That statement makes no sense to me. It is possible to survive even if you cannot control every aspect of your environment. The dinosaurs managed to do it for millions of years even without technology.
     
  13. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    well another thing is nothing has yet happened i dont believe since humans time on this planet. and obviously dinosaurs couldnt survive an object of destruction from space, luckily bacteria did.

    once again, we are just fortunate nothing has happened during our time on this planet, in this solar system, etc. etc.
     
  14. Sadistic-Savior

    Sadistic-Savior New Member Past Donor

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    I dont think fortune has anything to do with it. Space is simply not as dangerous as those shows lead you to believe. At least not on Solar or planetary scales.

    A lot of weird and extreme stuff happens in space, but space is really really really big.
     
  15. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    probably right and im letting the possibilities mess with my head a little much. but also at the same time there is alot we still dont know as well. i just find space extremely fascinating and at the same time fear it out of respect. i mean seriously, we are at its mercy. yes we know about Gamma Rays,solar flairs, asteroids, black holes, sent a couple robots to Mars and to Jupiters outer rings etc. etc. but thats just a small fraction of the things to be done and soooo much more to discover.

    i mean do you not think its possible there is something out there thats even more menacing than a black hole, something we havent found or seen yet?
     
  16. Independent with a voice

    Independent with a voice New Member

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    http://www.newscientist.com/article...dow-pulsar-is-fattest-collapsed-star-yet.html

    Well, it's probably not more menacing than a black hole or that galaxy posted earlier and has already been discovered, but the thought of Pulsar cannibalizing on it's sibling star sounds kind of scary. Don't pulsars also sometimes move through space (like black holes) or something like that? Theoretically speaking though, the article also says this star will probably collapse into a black hole after some time, but for the time being, this neutron star is twice as big than our own sun.
     
  17. Sadistic-Savior

    Sadistic-Savior New Member Past Donor

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    Yes. Strange matter is one.

    And then there is a vacuum phase transition...if that happened that would be the end of the universe in a very real sense. But the universe has been here 14 billion+ years and it hasnt happened yet. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum#Vacuum_metastability_event -
     
  18. Sadistic-Savior

    Sadistic-Savior New Member Past Donor

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    Not any moreso than any other star. And star collisions are unbelievably rare, even in the galactic core where stars are far denser. We are 4 light years from the nearest star as it is...that is a lot of room.

    Black holes are scarier than pulsars for several reason. But the main one is that black holes are "invisible", so the only way you would ever know it was in our solar system is by its gravitational effects. By contrast you would see that Pulsar coming for hundreds/thousands/millions of years. With a black hole you would only get a few decades of warning.
     
  19. teeceemv

    teeceemv New Member

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    Wait! You forgot, global warming will kills us all in what, 25 years? Forget about Gamma Ray Bursts, or Mass Coronal Ejections, or Killer Asteroids, etc.
     
  20. ronmatt

    ronmatt New Member

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    Global warming won't kill me...I practice breathing pure CO2..I'm up to 4 minutes. Plus I'm starting to collect mica. I plan on shaping it into scales and having them surgically sewn onto my body.
    I will live forever.
     
  21. teeceemv

    teeceemv New Member

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    And your name is ... what, MIKE?
     
  22. mikezila

    mikezila New Member

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    sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. :nod:
     
  23. DominorVobis

    DominorVobis Banned at Members Request

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    Every time you drive down a road, highway, freeway etc. the driver of the car coming towards you could have one of many episodes that could render them incapable of controlling the car.

    Every day a million things happen, some that could, some that should and some that do cause the demise of people on a minute by minute basis. If we worried about every thing, well some do.
     
  24. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    i dont worry about that kinda of stuff, simply because if someone loses control of their vehicle atleast i have a fighting chance to avoid an accident with them, i have some control over that situation.

    but with space and its obvious many many earth destroying dangers, we are ultimately helpless lol.
     
  25. DominorVobis

    DominorVobis Banned at Members Request

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    Yes well sometimes you do ... and yes, a million things could happen ... and at any time we could all cease to exist in a millisecond as some cataclysmic event that we haven't been able to foresee occurs.

    But don't wait for it, don't think about it .. men have worried themselves for millennium about this and that ... you can make a difference now for good ... be good, listen, learn, think and be reasonable.

    Read the desiderata, listen to it's truths, I feel the first 3 verses are poignant here.

    "Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit."

    "If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time."
    and
    "Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth."

    read the rest ...
     

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