Hubble unveils a colorful view of the universe

Phys.Org ^ | 06-03-2014 | Provided by ESA/Hubble Information Centre

[VanDeKoik]

Just knowing that every galaxy is teaming with trillions of planetary bodies with seas, and life, and goodness knows what else is sooooo tantalizing.

I wish I had an Encyclopedia Galactica with all the answers.

[Norm Lenhart]

Many. Each with their own PDSers and RINOs too I’d imagine.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Snort. And what exactly is their fascination with our cows? Yes good cheese burgers, but those aren’t the parts they seem to be interested in.

[Norm Lenhart]

I will always roll with fits of hysterical laughter at Dennis Miller’s comments about flying light years to check our colon health.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Quite right, I have ten thousand times the computing power the Apollo astronauts did, sitting right here on my desk for a fraction of the price. And by the way, I've spent hundreds of hours simulating what they did with this:
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Wow. Puts me in mind of this verse:

Psalm 8:3-4
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

[Telepathic Intruder]

LOL.

[kjam22]

Recent reliable estimates of the total number of galaxies in the portion of our universe that is observable are in the range of hundreds of billions of galaxies, averaging roughly two hundred billion stars per galaxy.

I dunno.... Kinda find that hard to believe. Especially that "reliable estimate" part.....

[Norm Lenhart]

I’ll check that out. Looks to be extremely time consuming...
Of course that may cut into my Skyrim/Fallout time but sacrifices must be made. Now if I can get a user mod so that Lydia can carry burdens aboard the Shuttle I’m all in ;)

[MaxMax]

I think it was alien cow-tipping gone to far.
Why else would it always be at night.

And why do they always abduct the stupid ugly people?

[Norm Lenhart]

Why do we elect them?

[Telepathic Intruder]

You’re asking me? I tend to think they only target those most likely to become self-acclaimed ufologists. But I’ve actually seen a UFO, that is to say an object, flying, that I could not identify. So what else can I call it?

[Telepathic Intruder]

Be forewarned: the learning curve is a little steep, but personally rewarding (some will claim).

[AceMineral]

Everything that has a beginning has an end.

[Norm Lenhart]

Now I am really interested ;)

[MaxMax]

We all saw that one.

[Hebrews 11:6]

What's "hard to believe" about it? Astronomers can see and count them. It's true that no one can count to hundreds of billions, but they can sample various representative areas, count what's there, and then extrapolate. For example: Count what's in areas totaling 1% of the sky, and then multiply by 100. You learned to do that before high school.

Besides, you can simply use a search engine and query "number of galaxies in the observable universe"--don't take my "unreliable estimate" for it. The second return in my Bing search reports 170,000,000,000+ galaxies.

What is it about "reliable estimates" that troubles you?

[Telepathic Intruder]

Jiffypop:)

[GunRunner]

Gravity travels at the speed of light.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Changes in gravity travel at the speed of light. Gravity itself is a field contained within space-time. But this is just a subtle point. For example, as the visible horizon red shifts beyond the speed of light, the gravitational field expands along with it. Individual gravitons, however (although their existence is theoretical but no doubt real) do not.