"Our Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy—two giant galaxies in our local patch of the universe—are heading for an immense collision with each other in only a few billion years’ time." Blimey, now I am worried. http://www.newsweek.com/milky-way-andromeda-galaxy-mass-collision-807849 How much dottier can this nonsensical drivel get before the disciples finally cotton on that they're being manipulated, I ask myself?
Aw man! I thought you were going to tell us Hubbell saw space ghost. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Ghost
This is not news to anyone with even a basic understanding, which you clearly lack. You probably envision huge collisions too and exploding stars.
What manipulation??? We're closing with Andromeda at 68 miles/second - so, it's no wonder it's going to take billions of years. Right now, it's just a fuzzy spot viewable by naked eye.
NASA is manipulating you by hyping up things to a ridiculous level and which cannot possibly be proven, and doing it with nauseating condescension as if to a gullible child. See what I mean? How on earth is it possible to measure to such accuracy something that's (supposedly?) happening in a distant galaxy. I mean, I might even be more convinced if they'd said that the velocity of the closing is 70 miles/second? But come on - 68?? I daresay it is - I wouldn't know; and you're only going by what you've read somewhere. I'm not denying there's a universe out there, and it can be observed.
Like a train whistle sounding a higher pitch when approaching, light shifts toward blue when approaching. Careful measurement of the amount of blue shift gives the closing speed.
Quite so - I fail to see what connection the Doppler effect, a long-recognised and proven phenomenon, has to do with 'colliding galaxies', which event is confidently predicted to take place 'in only a few billion years' time!' ( ). The more I read this kind of drivel, the more convinced I become that NASA has some kind of monthly in-house competition for who can dream up the most ridiculous space story. Actually this story deserves to be a shoe-in for first prize?
I have pointed out the only part of your post that is important. Most individuals have curiosity, understanding, mental acuity, and education that allows for comprehension of the underlying implications and awesome power of our universe and that which occurs within it. You make it painfully clear you do not and because of this feel the need to lash out like an angry and frustrated child at those who do. It is and has been well known that Andromeda and the Milky Way are attracting each other and eventually they will combine. The result will be a much larger Galaxy and Supermassive Black Hole as well as massive disruption, destruction, and creation over Billions of years.
So, what is the position you are coming from? Flat earth? Evangelical? Just trump supporter with an ax to grind with anyone who has an iq over 75?
Just looking into Apollo 8 - the first manned flight around the moon (a few times) and back. It's one of the really early manned flights, initially planned for earth orbit only. When we heard about something Russia was going to do, NASA made a late switch and decided what the hey, let's go to the moon! Anyway... Soon after launch one of the astronauts spewed breakfast over pretty much the entire interior. They spent the next 6 days sitting in it, wiping it off the instruments they needed, the windows, etc., and never letting on what happened, as it might have caused the trip to be aborted. Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13 fame, was on that trip. During Apollo 8, the computer got rebooted, which meant the computer thought they were still waiting for launch! Lovell had to realign the spacecraft by shooting at stars, then figuring out how to tell the computer where they were, which involved significant calculation.
None of the above, merely someone who has an independent mind and analyses what he reads, rather than being gullible enough to believe everything without questioning it? And I can assure you that my IQ is higher than 75. Probably far higher than yours.
I'll obviously be wasting my time to answer that in detail, so I'll just sum it up by submitting one of my sigs and hope you can understand my position on the subject: 'Don't follow the common herd - be of an independent mind.'
I can't go through it all again, so I'll just say that there's science, and there's faux science, and I can tell the difference, not necessarily by the information being presented to me, but in the way it's being presented. As in real life I can tell when somebody is lying to me, and the classic sign of it is when they're doing so in a condescending way - as if communicating with a child? In short, children will unquestioningly believe everything they're told, and so will some adults.
There is no scientist telling us we should be worried by this. A collision of galaxies doesn't mean their stars and planets get destroyed because stars are so far apart and are unlikely to run into each other. A collision of galaxies just mean a few new stars appear in the sky as the two groups of stars from both galaxies fuse into one group.
So because it won't be happening until 'a few billion years' time' I can stop worrying then? Thanks, that's the best news I've heard so far today. ( )
