"My God, its full of stars!"

Look really closely at all of the star formation regions in the Whirlpool Galaxy:


The Cat's Eye Nebula:


The Sombrero Galaxy, which gives us an unreal edge-on look at a spiral galaxy:


Hoag's Object:

Originally posted by KJV1611
reply to post by HomerinNC

 

Most of these pictures are artists renditions of what they "think" the universe looks like right? I mean you can't just take pictures of multiple galaxies in one photo frame?

Nope, the Hubble pictures etc. are not artist's renditions..although they might be made with long exposures simply to capture as much light as possible so we can *see* as much detail as possible.

Originally posted by googolplex

I myself belong to the Closed Universe faction, believing with a Big Crunch to occur in some 23 Trillion years. I'm only guessing but seems to make more sense, than a Open Universe with a dismal end.

I actually believe in the "pulsating" universe theory, that is that the "big bang" is only one of many, possibly infinite "big bangs". The universe is born many times over, after the "big crunch" (nice word!) a new big bang will happen..and it will repeat over and over.

reply to post by HomerinNC


Oh Yea each Star/Heavenly Body...the stars are each human that is waiting in heaven at the gate,what do you think the orb's you see in disasters are?yea their could be one of your family members in that picture...would you like to join us in time or how about now?John 3:16

Originally posted by randomname
you can't look at these pictures and not believe in God.

Face palm.
Sure you can, that makes zero sense.

reply to post by HomerinNC


S&F for you OP... I honestly love threads like this. Threads like this one pushed me to become a member of ATS...

It honestly hurts my brain to think of the vastness of the universe, its simply astonishing... I remember a little while back when I was at the Chicago Alder Planetarium the guide mentioned to the group that there are more stars (or it may have been Galaxies) in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth...I'm not sure how I can check this, but if the Universe is infinity long, i suppose it sounds plausible... Either way, I love topics like this...

As others have said, I too love threads like this. But, I get frustrated because I'm unable grasp the absolute enormity of it all. I see thousands of stars in a photo and understand that they are light-years apart from each other and then my mind just goes numb.

Is there a website that is dedicated to conversations, education, photos, etc. in the same spirit of this particular thread?

One thing that is a little depressing, yet at the same time exciting to think about, is how common intelligent life must be in the universe. It would be an honor if God made humans as the only "intelligent" species and only put us on one planet (Earth). But, more than likely, God isn't "small minded" like that. We're probably just one species amongst millions. Most extra-terrestrial UFO's are probably just advanced species stopping in to have a look before moving on to their next vista. Wouldn't that be a great way for us to take vacations, if we could!
-cwm

Originally posted by HomerinNC
Here is another pic of a galactic cluster taken by the Hubble

looks like those are all closeby, when in reality theyre probably MILLIONS of light years apart.
They also look small in the picture, but think: some of these can possibly be larger then the Messier Galaxy.
IMMENSE galaxies, just TEEMING with life.
It simply boggles my mind.

Whoa....looks like some serious gravitic lensing happening in that one. Were they using lensing for some reason in this image? Maybe there's an older, far more distant galaxy behind the cluster somewhere...

Originally posted by Foxy1

My question is, if every galaxy contains a black hole(the reason heavenly bodies cluster together) and its sucking in the galaxy slowly over billions of years, is this evidence that no physical life form is immortal?
What if some alien race discovered immortality? Would he just have to hop from galaxy to galaxy to stay alive? or can there be life outside of a galaxy?
I guess my question is where is the best real estate for an immortal lol

Excellent question! There is an awesome short story written by Issac Asimov in 1956, called The Last Question, where the question you just asked is the center of the story's progression. The story isn't very long and it is definitely worth reading to anyone who enjoys speculation into the nature of everything.

Link to web version of "The Last Question"

If you read it, I wanna know what you think!

reply to post by googolplex


I think you misunderstood. I totally believe that there is other life out there. Just that the universe is so vast that the odds of other life finding us I believe is slim. The odds are so small in the immense size of of the universe really.

Originally posted by Tsurugi

Originally posted by Foxy1

My question is, if every galaxy contains a black hole(the reason heavenly bodies cluster together) and its sucking in the galaxy slowly over billions of years, is this evidence that no physical life form is immortal?
What if some alien race discovered immortality? Would he just have to hop from galaxy to galaxy to stay alive? or can there be life outside of a galaxy?
I guess my question is where is the best real estate for an immortal lol

Excellent question! There is an awesome short story written by Issac Asimov in 1956, called The Last Question, where the question you just asked is the center of the story's progression. The story isn't very long and it is definitely worth reading to anyone who enjoys speculation into the nature of everything.

Link to web version of "The Last Question"

About the story. Seems to me, the computer would have figured out the "let their be light" much sooner.

If you read it, I wanna know what you think!

edit on 1/24/2012 by Tsurugi because: Forgot some stuff.

Originally posted by shadowland8
reply to post by wmd_2008

 

It's unfortunate that you're perpetuating lies here, and that you think God is some sort of man made concept, but the matter of the fact is seeing the Universe shows intelligent design.

This thread is about ASTRONOMY not god but its seems anyone who has found religion seems to PUSH it at every oppertunity they get.

It's not lies YOU dont have any proof of god only stories, I have LOADS of proof MEN create god(s) stories.
Here have a look and fill your boots

www.lowchensaustralia.com...

Anyway the Hubble Ultra Deep Field pic was a 1 Million second exposure of a tiny patch of sky which looked like there was nothing in it well except a few thousand galaxys.

I am a sceptic re ufo and alien visitors to earth but there must be plenty of life out there but that doesn't mean that MOG from ZOG visits here!

one more time...
PLEASE STAY ON TOPIC! please keep the 'does God exist' in another thread
Thank you

Originally posted by Tsurugi

Originally posted by Foxy1

My question is, if every galaxy contains a black hole(the reason heavenly bodies cluster together) and its sucking in the galaxy slowly over billions of years, is this evidence that no physical life form is immortal?
What if some alien race discovered immortality? Would he just have to hop from galaxy to galaxy to stay alive? or can there be life outside of a galaxy?
I guess my question is where is the best real estate for an immortal lol

Excellent question! There is an awesome short story written by Issac Asimov in 1956, called The Last Question, where the question you just asked is the center of the story's progression. The story isn't very long and it is definitely worth reading to anyone who enjoys speculation into the nature of everything.

Link to web version of "The Last Question"

If you read it, I wanna know what you think!

edit on 1/24/2012 by Tsurugi because: Forgot some stuff.

Cool read im surprised it was published back in 1956. Interesting How the technology in the story survived and became the principle of creation.

HomerinNC,

If I may, and it is on topic. There are two videos out there that floor me every time. They are both realistic animations that show the vastness of just a small part of the Universe.

For those that have viewing capabilities, I recommend watching in full screen.

The first one is the intro scene from the movie Contact. We get a nice view from the Earth and then it starts zooming out. We see our different planets go by...then our galaxy...which then melts in a sea of other galaxies.

I love it !





The second one is called "Star Size Comparison". Starts with our moon and move up to the biggest Sun we've found so far. This one is a jaw dropping experience when you see it for the first time.

I recommend watching in HD, full size.

I hope you enjoy those as much as I do.

reply to post by SonoftheSun


I LOVE the movie Contact, thats my favorite scene in the movie

ETA: the music from the second video is the themne music from Disney's The Black Hole

Originally posted by HomerinNC
one more time...
PLEASE STAY ON TOPIC! please keep the 'does God exist' in another thread
Thank you

I'll bet that's the last time you use the word 'God' in a thread title! It seems that the religious are allowed to derail threads.

Anyway, here's my favourite nebula: M42 in Orion. A birthplace of stars and visible to the naked eye.

Sit Back

Turn off the lights

Turn up the music on your PC

Enjoy

Be Humbled

Realize you are that we see, every part of you came from what we are now seeing




And for some poetic and cultural explanation of this truth when realized with no particular Religious bent:




Thank you OP

Love

Elf

reply to post by MischeviousElf


I had never seen that one. Thanks, it was just GREAT !!!!

To think that there isn't life elsewhere...

reply to post by SonoftheSun


So glad you liked it.

It should be shown to everyone in school.

I can watch it countless times.

Please pass it on to you and yours.

Love

Elf