If as they say our galaxy is flying through space....

How exactly do they know there isnt some giant rock somewhere that we will eventually come into contact with?? Since the big bang everything in the universe has been travelling outwards, therefore surely we are hurtling blind into an abyss because obviously our surroundings now wont be the same next week/month/year. So who knows what we could find crossing our paths soon? Or will there actually be nothing because everything is moving at the same rate?

Originally posted by Idonthaveabeard
How exactly do they know there isnt some giant rock somewhere that we will eventually come into contact with?? Since the big bang everything in the universe has been travelling outwards, therefore surely we are hurtling blind into an abyss because obviously our surroundings now wont be the same next week/month/year. So who knows what we could find crossing our paths soon? Or will there actually be nothing because everything is moving at the same rate?

Our surroundings are generally moving with us but certainly that isn't always the case.. while we're all hurtling outwards, objects from exploding stars or collisions in general could be anywhere, and there's no telling what kind of mass other celestial objects could have.. our galaxy may contain penny sized planets in relation to what we might come across .. I mean imagine if an object is coming at us in the opposite direction that we're traveling at the same speed at which we're traveling.. it could be on us in no time.. scary thought

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


No, everything's not moving at the same rate or in the same directions.

I'm by no means an astrophysicist, but you've got all sorts of gravity, solar streams, eruptions, and various other things causing orbits or errant flights of various bodies through space, so 'explosion' and outward momentum aside, things can collide easily.

And it's entirely possible that there's big stuff out there coming our way or that will be crossing our path someday, this is one of the big concerns a lot of very smart people have. Impacts are not uncommon, although we thankfully have Jupiter, etc., running interference for us, but earth has quite a few large craters showing it's happened before, and I believe we actually still manage to get about 100 million tons or so of space crap every year just from smaller items that burn up entering the atmosphere.

So, it's definitely a possibility - and on a long enough scale, likely a certainty - but scientists are watching for what they can as well as trying to think up ways to deal with planet-killers we might eventually run up against.

Originally posted by Idonthaveabeard
Or will there actually be nothing because everything is moving at the same rate?

1 doesnt think everything is moving at the same rate. Different materials different energies. Worst case we hit the boundries and cause a domino effect in the interior universal boundries.

Interesting thought I like looking out there.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


Watch dust. You know how you try to touch a piece of it or even catch a speck in liquid and it moves away from you? There is a force field out front and it is repelling things as we move forward. Most things will be cast aside. Whatever hits us has to be unlikely or intentional at least thats my take on it. I am a cook.

Im sure I read a report that said if something was to come then we are unlikely to know about it untill it has either hit us or past us, unless of course its a big ass planet or something. There was something in the news about a year or 2 ago that said a biggish asteroid had in fact glanced off the earths atmosphere and nobody had seen it coming. So I guess your right these things can happen.

You have to look at the universe as one big cosmic blender that's expanding.

Everything is crashing into everything.

In fact Our galaxy is on a crash course with Andromeda galaxy.

www.galaxydynamics.org...

Andromeda–Milky Way collision - Wikipedia,




The Andromeda–Milky Way collision is a predicted galaxy collision that could possibly take place in approximately 3 to 5 billion years' time between the two largest galaxies in the Local Group ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda–Milky_Way_collision - Cached.




this bit of science points out that measurements show that these two galaxies are on a collision course even as they are speeding away in the larger universe expansion...

im reminded of the office memo 'thimk'


+++OH... InfiniteTraveler got it while i was on the typing page....

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard

Already addressed.

When galaxies collide individual star systems in the area where ours is would virtually be unaffected due to the great distances between stars in galaxies not close to the galactic core. So you have even less to worry about an intergalactic big rouge rock posing any eminent threat, unless you plan on being around the next few billions of years.

So I'll add if you are around in a few billion years and the night sky looks a little like this;



During the collision it could look like this;



I've seen better artist's representations but galactic collisions are not an ELE.