84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

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Stuart
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84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

Post by Stuart »

It's impossible to capture the scale of our galaxy on your computer screen, but darned if the European Southern Observatory isn't going to try. The observatory has released a 108500×81500 pixel mosaic of the central parts of the Milky Way. You weren't planning on doing anything else with your weekend, right?

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Re: 84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

Post by Tribble »

WOW - just wow!
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Re: 84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

Post by GreyWolf »

I wonder in how many of those systems there are people looking right back at us?
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Re: 84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

Post by Tribble »

You just made me feel uncomfortable
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Re: 84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

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GreyWolf wrote:I wonder in how many of those systems there are people looking right back at us?
Assuming the theoretical possibility of sentient life in other star systems, said life would not be looking at us per se, unless the star system is within a few thousand light years from us (keep in mind that nothing currently known to us moves faster than this speed). A sentient alien culture located ~65 million light years from us and observing our planet at this point in time would, in reality, be witnessing the K–T extinction event.

Of course, the inverse is also true -- which is why I personally view searches for extraterrestrial life as a waste of time and resources. Assuming that extraterrestrial life developed in other star systems in the first place, we still aren't going to detect it unless it developed considerably earlier than us, and as I've already pointed out, age of civilization and distance from us is directly related.
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Re: 84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

Post by GreyWolf »

Ron2K wrote:Assuming the theoretical possibility of sentient life in other star systems, said life would not be looking at us per se, unless the star system is within a few thousand light years from us (keep in mind that nothing currently known to us moves faster than this speed). A sentient alien culture located ~65 million light years from us and observing our planet at this point in time would, in reality, be witnessing the K–T extinction event.

Of course, the inverse is also true -- which is why I personally view searches for extraterrestrial life as a waste of time and resources. Assuming that extraterrestrial life developed in other star systems in the first place, we still aren't going to detect it unless it developed considerably earlier than us, and as I've already pointed out, age of civilization and distance from us is directly related.
Well thanks for that, Captain Murderfun! :D
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Re: 84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

Post by KALSTER »

Ron2K wrote:
Of course, the inverse is also true -- which is why I personally view searches for extraterrestrial life as a waste of time and resources. Assuming that extraterrestrial life developed in other star systems in the first place, we still aren't going to detect it unless it developed considerably earlier than us, and as I've already pointed out, age of civilization and distance from us is directly related.
Considering that the universe is 13.7 billion years old (Milky Way around 13.2 billion years old) and the first humans only emerged 200k years ago (our solar system being around 4.5 billion years old), I'd say that leaves plenty of time for other civilizations to rival and even far exceed us, even when we look out thousands of light years. Detection is one thing though, but communication is another.



Anyway,that image is breathtaking. I keep trying to zoom in further! :)
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Re: 84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

Post by Tribble »

They would be stupid to come here
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Re: 84 Million Stars of the Milky Way in 9 Billion Pixels

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KALSTER wrote:Considering that the universe is 13.7 billion years old (Milky Way around 13.2 billion years old) and the first humans only emerged 200k years ago (our solar system being around 4.5 billion years old), I'd say that leaves plenty of time for other civilizations to rival and even far exceed us, even when we look out thousands of light years. Detection is one thing though, but communication is another.
It's still a narrow window of opportunity -- keeping in mind that at those distances, detecting a potentially habitable celestial body is exceptionally difficult, let alone detecting whether it is indeed being habited.

And then, to throw a geo-political and cultural slant (and an added dose of my own wild speculation and cyicism!) into the mix: if our own species is anything to go by, it appears that the more we advance, the more we try to destroy ourselves in one way or the other. We (obviously!) don't know how long it would take for a civilization to wipe itself out (or to be wiped out by a natural, unavoidable event), but this is a possibility that can't be discounted, and it could narrow the window of opportunity even further.

And this is just detection. Communication, as you already mentioned, is something else entirely.

Of course, I've been making one base assumption all along: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. While we haven't been able to disprove this yet, there's nothing to say that there is a way of travelling faster (that's outside the realm of science fiction!) that we just don't know about.

(Must say, I'm really finding it interesting and enjoyable thinking about this stuff, even if it is making my mind explode a bit...)
GreyWolf wrote:Well thanks for that, Captain Murderfun! :D
:lol:
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