Bahtatboy

Just to make sure I'd got my head round it! It's a bit like working for a company, then: some things which have have a higher (bigger number) classification than others are, in fact, considerably dimmer. My boss, for example. And now that I can spell logarithmic, I'll say that is applies on a logarithmic scale, too.

SultanOfSwing

I knew what I was trying to say in my head (I meant a decrease in the actual apparent magnitude, rather than the value) but I expressed it horribly.

But yes, logarithms all round.

Bahtatboy

Lens apertures...

SultanOfSwing

Yeah, decibels too.

Shard

Good program on BBC 2 called "Search for a New Earth" on the topic of Proxima B. They have graphic of what the miniature light-sail spacecraft might look like, and some guy in CA making prototypes.

Pulaski

Discuss the Fermi paradox.

Shard

Nice video. The Milky Way has 10,000 stars for every grain of sand on earth ?? ... Ah just re-checked, there's a correction note which says 10,000 stars in the observable universe for every sand grain. Makes more sense.

SultanOfSwing

Can't watch the video yet, but I'm vaguely familiar with the concept. It's a tricky one, isn't it? It's equally possible that we are, in fact, the most advanced form of life in the universe (in which case, the universe is ****ed) than it is that there are far more advanced civilzations than ours.

Personally, I like to think the universe is teeming with life, and due to the incomprehensible distances between us, we just haven't found each other yet. Plus, a theoretical interstellar civilization may not have visited Earth for the simple reason that they just don't know we're here, or we're just not interesting enough for them to actually stop and say hello.

Shard

I'm going with your final reason. We're just ants.

SultanOfSwing

Brings me back to the comment (which was a partially remembered quote from somewhere or other) that I made elsewhere that we're just a science project some alien kid got a C on.

chawkins99

Reminds me of a Douglas Adams quote:

https://sites.google.com/site/h2g2th...Index/i/540914

Pulaski

So you think you're a big deal?

steveq

Total Perspective Vortex FTW

Shard

Hmmm...a bit long winded, but good. First, I thought if was Carl Sagan speaking, but then when he mentioned You Tube, guess not.

Numa muma guy, long time no see. But WTF was he doing in this video.

Wouldn't agree that the UDF photo is the "single most important photo taken humanity" though it is impressive.

Did the video help comprehending 78 billion light years? Not really. I don't think we can comprehend that scale.

Sometimes you wonder if the science has actually got it right? I accept that the math and physics is all internally consistent, but maybe it doesn't in fact exist. Or maybe it's just a simulation.

Pulaski

I think that the 78 billion light years raises some very interesting questions about the age of the universe, the speed of light, and Einstein's relativity formulae. Even with Earth in the center and 39 billion light years in every direction, that is still a massive discrepancy to the oft-reported 13 billion year age of the universe, and I learned very recently that some galaxies are known to be receding from Earth at faster than the speed of light, which just shouldn't be possible.

Somewhere in those facts I believe there are some earth-shaking revelations waiting to be discovered.