Dark galaxy crashing into the Milky Way

Originally posted by SpaceGoatsFarts

Originally posted by rattan1
Should we be worried about this.

Not in our lifetime...

Is it not commonly believed that we are all obligated to the preservation of life on our planet? Who is responsible for investigating an alternative to extinction if not us? While extinction level events may not occur for millions of years into the future, human society as we know it can change rather quickly. The levels of global intelligence, communication, and cooperation enjoyed by current generations may not be known to future generations.

I think that every single living creature of this world, with respect to it's abilities, is equally responsible for and obligated to the continuation of the cycle of life.

I believe it is absurd and arrogant to not be worried about such things "in our lifetime".

Alternatively, I may be just as arrogant in thinking that humans or our planet are of any concern at all when considered in context with all that exists. It may very well be that the eventual demise of humans or Earth is inevitable and there is no need to worry about it in this lifetime.

But how can we be sure one way or another? Considering the extent of our current knowledge and technology, we still know relatively little about the universe or the life contained within it.

If the expansion of human affairs is not our duty, why do we possess levels of "intelligence" such as we do? What would be the point?

It is said "better safe than sorry", and I agree.

In other words, yes. Yes, we should be worried about this in this lifetime.

And indeed we are. Otherwise we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Human dedication to research and science is greatly responsible for our very existence today as well as the ways in which we live.

Presume nothing.



[edit on 23-11-2009 by slimpickens93]

reply to post by slimpickens93


I would not presume to post on this thread about something of which I know little or nothing.

However, I would presume to respond to your post by saying I know an excellent post when I see one, and this was amazing. Thank you.

You should get an applause for this imho.

reply to post by rattan1


Worrying about things you can not change and have no control over is always a negative. Makes no sense to do it since there is nothing you could do about it. Worrying constantly about things you can't control is clinical depression in fact.

There is a huge list of things that can happen to the Earth or any one of us at any time. Why waste even a moment of our time worrying?

reply to post by slimpickens93


I can not agree. We should worry about what we can change not things we can not change. Controlling the movements of heavenly bodies who's size defies description is not something we can do anything about now, if ever. We can not build underground bunkers for 6 billion people and stock them with supplies either. That leaves worrying and worrying just for the sake of worrying is clinical depression which destroys lives needlessly.

Unless of course somebody has an answer and the means to accomplish it?

Should we waste resources and study on things we clearly can not control or use those same resources towards things we can change or control? I think the answer is crystal clear.

Worrying is a mental illness; doing is the antithesis.

reply to post by Blaine91555


Anything we do should take future generations into consideration. Anything we can do to prevent future problems for them should be done. That was the point of the post.

I don't think anybody is talking about losing sleep over something that won't take place for eons. I didn't hear anybody "worrying" themselves into the psych-ward over this.

But to begin trying to understand what could happen, and then somehow begin the process of thinking of what might or could be done, is a very natural and prudent response.

Certainly nobody who is alive right now is able to ascertain the depth of this issue and solve the problem. Nobody is attempting to. Thankfully, it's left to the physicists and others, who understand the importance of preserving our planet for posterity. But to try to begin to understand it is our nature.

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


Agree with you we should think of the future. It is human to fear the unknown and we should try to as far as we can try to understand the consequences of this. One important point in the article is that this Dark galaxy rip through our Galaxy before (70 m yrs ago) and now its back. We underestimated the Size of it, are we underestimating the speed at which it is happening?

Current law of Physics known to us cannot explain everything:

Rogue galaxies prompt rethink on Newton

Dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way are breaking the laws of physics, prompting another modification of Newton's theory of gravitation.

Assuming it is going to take eons for a cataclysm to happen it does not mean we should leave everything for the future generations to worry about, lets give them a head start....

People have suggested that visitors from space are scoping out the earth for a possible habitat because they have presumably ruined theirs. I usually do not spend much time thinking about ideas like that.

A story like this one about colliding galaxies, however, does make one think. Although we are not at a stage to do anything about this kind of event, other more advanced civilizations out there might just be. This must be a regular enough thing out in the greater universe, and perhaps some of these advanced societies have more than once found themselves looking to "get out of Dallas" for just such a reason.

Who knows, that could have played a part in our ancestors arriving here in the first place.

[edit on 11/23/2009 by wayno]

What exactly could we possibly do to help people 40 million years from now? Absolutely nothing, that's what. We can't stop the collision. We can't relocate to a new galaxy. We can't do anything. If you think I'm wrong, go stop the collision right now. Tell me how it works out for you.

40 million years from now, one of two things will be true: The human race will not exist, or the human race will have reached a technological state where it can save itself. Too bad we won't see it in our lifetimes, because I'd be willing to bet a million bucks that there just won't be humans left by then.

You asked if we're underestimating its speed. That point has already been addressed - it doesn't matter how fast everything is moving, because of the sheer distances involved. Pay attention instead of looking for excuses to still be scared.

reply to post by rattan1


I am not trying to dismiss this, but most of a galaxy is "empty space". Even if an outside galaxy like our own were to collide with us, the effect on our solar system would probably be nothing noticeable by us (beyond some funky star constellations). Almost nothing would collide with anything else. It be like shooting a gun at a brick wall...only the bricks are 100 miles wide, the grout is 1mm thick, and you are aiming for a speck of sand on the grout line...while blindfolded. Yeah, it is that unlikely and more. Can a gas cloud effect the earth? Not likely. Can it effect the sun? Most probably (at least it's magnetic field). That does not mean we are doomed. How much of a cloud will really hit us? It is not like the whole thin gis headed right for us. Clam yourselves. First it was niburu, comets, aliens, now this. Life will go on.

I love to talk about these sorts of things too, but in the end we need to live our lives. Let these sort of things go-there is a new one everyday.

Relax, folks. Things on a galactic scale happen so slowly, this collision has probably already been taking place for thousands or millions of years. Things aren't going to change all of a sudden.

Makes me wonder if this will open up inter dimensional portals? It would be plausible to think that such an event would have some impact on dimension in some form or another. Interesting indeed. reading this it makes me think of dimensional things for sure. It would also interesting to know if any gov agencys are increasing their activitys regarding time travel, cloaking around this time frame too. Wish there was a way to determine this because if we could cite any increased activity then correlate it to this impact I would think that could be considered as evidence (at least circumstantial) of many things including the Manhattan Project!

Originally posted by mikelee
Makes me wonder if this will open up inter dimensional portals? It would be plausible to think that such an event would have some impact on dimension in some form or another. Interesting indeed. reading this it makes me think of dimensional things for sure. It would also interesting to know if any gov agencys are increasing their activitys regarding time travel, cloaking around this time frame too. Wish there was a way to determine this because if we could cite any increased activity then correlate it to this impact I would think that could be considered as evidence (at least circumstantial) of many things including the Manhattan Project!

Have you even been reading the thread? Seriously, I hate the Internet sometimes. Thank god the people making decisions in the real world aren't as ill-informed and inattentive as the people talking about the real world.

I'm sorry, but every word of your post proves even more than the word before it that you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

Originally posted by ladyinwaiting
reply to post by Blaine91555

 

Anything we do should take future generations into consideration. Anything we can do to prevent future problems for them should be done. That was the point of the post.

I don't think anybody is talking about losing sleep over something that won't take place for eons. I didn't hear anybody "worrying" themselves into the psych-ward over this.

But to begin trying to understand what could happen, and then somehow begin the process of thinking of what might or could be done, is a very natural and prudent response.

Certainly nobody who is alive right now is able to ascertain the depth of this issue and solve the problem. Nobody is attempting to. Thankfully, it's left to the physicists and others, who understand the importance of preserving our planet for posterity. But to try to begin to understand it is our nature.

That would have been very close to my response, had you not beat me to it.

Neither was I suggesting that anyone worry themselves to the point of physical sickness or paranoia with constant visions of planets colliding or any other doomsday scenario.

Nor can we all be astrophysicists.

You have to think on larger scale. Worrying about it can simply mean an occasional thought when you see the night sky or an airplane. And there are plenty of things you can do about it, right now. You can support the sciences and arts in private or public sectors. Donations, purchase of goods or services, investing. Teaching, fund raising, consulting. Actually participate in research or science. A very easy way to "do something", just off the top of my head, is the SETI@Home program.

Most humans already do all of these things whether they know/like it or not. Most of us at the very least participate through taxation. And supporting roles range all the way from the mailman down to micro-organisms.

Of course the more enthusiastic "worriers" write science-fiction, design rockets, study rocks, plant trees, study the paranormal and psychology, practice magic, pray, and on and on. There are so many ways to contribute to finding solutions to problems, real or imagined, that it is probably impossible not to.

It becomes a question of whether a person is conscientious of his role and if it is deliberate or not.

I will stop here at the risk of drifting off into philosophical babble.

Regardless, I think everyone should worry to some extent about galaxies colliding.

For a person to not worry or care at all gives me the impression that he has no sense of humanity. He cares not about the mortality of others. It's possible that he doesn't care about his own mortality and he lacks purpose or direction.

I find great difficulty in understanding how one could not worry at all about the origin of life and its ultimate purpose, or death of any scale or context.

I understand the probability that this is not what the poster who stated not to worry "in this lifetime" meant. I hope he meant we shouldn't worry about the actual event occurring during the lifetime of those currently living. It didn't necessarily mean that we shouldn't care at all.

However, the question, "should we worry about this?", was just as open to interpretation as the answer, "not in this lifetime."

Curiosity and imagination alone dictate that we worry about these things, or so it seems to me.

reply to post by s373r3d


Because you may believe that most of the Universe is simply "empty space" does not make it so. Many physicists would disagree with you. There is so much we do not understand that it's just absurd to think it's so simple.

Some thinks it's a field of energy or a web of invisible strings or an ocean of invisible substance.

Laser, radio, flight are all "new" technologies to currently living humans.

What if we someday learn how to influence such things as gravity, or harness energy from "space"?

What if we make new discoveries in paranormal or supernatural fields?

What if there is much to yet be "discovered" from our own history?

It may very well be a waste of time for a particular person to worry about certain things. But, to say it is a waste of time to worry about things which you perceive to be impossible and/or inevitable is quite preposterous in my opinion.

reply to post by loner007


May I just clarify something here ? Galaxies , do not have common or garden variety black holes in thier centres. They have supermassive black holes in thier centres as far as I have been made aware. Standard black holes are not strong enough to pull all the massive amounts of matter and energy contained in a galaxy around , but truely spectacularly sized black holes are.

reply to post by Blaine91555


At times during history humans have harvested everything by hand because they believed "there was no other way".

It's shocking to imagine that our technology/knowledge would never have progressed from that of "hunters/gatherers", if all humans were to follow that philosophy.