Hubble goes deep

[Barringtonia]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

[UnhealthyTruthseeker]

Don't worry, its meaningful, just useless (in a dispassionate sort of sense, although I wouldn't rule out it being possibly useful in the future, I'm just not seeing it- and no one seems to be suggesting otherwise).

Did you know that just as much physics knowledge has been derived (and is being derived) from astronomical observations as laboratories and particle accelerators?

[Dakini]

Science =/= Technology. Scratch-resistant Lenses? Freeze-Dried Food? Athletic Shoes? CAT & MRI Technologies? Dipping Dots? All kinds of things we use today came from the space race. We need a manned mission to Mars to kick start innovation again.


DISCLAIMER: Being part of the manned mission to Mars is on my bucket list, so I may be biased here.

As much as I'd like to go into space, I'm an astronomer. The amount of money for a return mission to Mars is more than NASA's budget and the money is much better spent on better telescopes (believe it or not, some technology goes into those nowadays). I've also heard mentions that the first manned trip to Mars might be one way (even if we don't think about the fact that a fairly large amount of stuff* that gets sent to Mars just dies or disappears along the way).



*compared to how much stuff NASA usually loses

[UnhealthyTruthseeker]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

[Lackadaisical2]

Don't worry, its meaningful, just useless (in a dispassionate sort of sense, although I wouldn't rule out it being possibly useful in the future, I'm just not seeing it- and no one seems to be suggesting otherwise).

Did you know that just as much physics knowledge has been derived (and is being derived) from astronomical observations as laboratories and particle accelerators?

See the rest of the post to view my actual/complete position on the issue.

[Dakini]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

Ripped from wikipedia: a raisin bread demo.

Think of the raisins as galaxies and the dough as spacetime. As the spacetime expands, the galaxies move further away from each other.

[Barringtonia]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Man, the 70's were way cooler.

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

Ripped from wikipedia: a raisin bread demo.

Think of the raisins as galaxies and the dough as spacetime. As the spacetime expands, the galaxies move further away from each other.

Getting it, thank you both.

[Avenio]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

I've always thought of it as sort of an expanding bubble of gas (As a descriptive metaphor, please don't murder me in my sleep Unhealthy Truthseeker ) that condensed under its own weight into what we see today;

[KiloMikeAlpha]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

[Bakunins Bum]

Quite amazing. I find it incredible to look upon the beauty which God has created.

Leave.

[UnhealthyTruthseeker]

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

We can't see a curved three dimensional space. We can only see flat three dimensional space and a curved two dimensional space. It was an anology, because three dimensional curvature is harder to deal with.

[Dakini]

We're nowhere near the edge of the universe. We aren't actually clear on whether it has edges, but if it does, we certainly can't see them.

The universe having actual boundaries (rather than being open or compact) would be problematic, wouldn't it? Wouldn't the edges of the universe end up having infinite curvature?

I'm actually not sure how that would work. Maybe it would just stop being. Or run into something else entirely.

[Lackadaisical2]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

You don't even have to look that far to determine that the universe cannot be a 2d plane, since I'm existing in three dimensions right now...

[Avenio]

EDIT: Nevermind, I've been corrected.

[Bakunins Bum]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

You, sir, have an atrocious understanding of 3D and 2D.

[Bakunins Bum]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

You don't even have to look that far to determine that the universe cannot be a 2d plane, since I'm existing in three dimensions right now...

That's not how it works, friend.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

Because the universe is a 3d plane curved into a 4th dimension. Just like Carl said.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

We can't see a curved three dimensional space. We can only see flat three dimensional space and a curved two dimensional space. It was an anology, because three dimensional curvature is harder to deal with.

Especially when one doesn't want to.

[UnhealthyTruthseeker]

That's not how it works, friend.

Actually, we can know that the universe isn't two dimensional, both from the fact that at least three spacial dimensions obviously exist and from the inverse square behavior of well-behaved fields.

[Lackadaisical2]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

You don't even have to look that far to determine that the universe cannot be a 2d plane, since I'm existing in three dimensions right now...

That's not how it works, friend.

Care to elaborate, darling?

[Bakunins Bum]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

You don't even have to look that far to determine that the universe cannot be a 2d plane, since I'm existing in three dimensions right now...

That's not how it works, friend.

Care to elaborate, darling?

Youtube: Carl Sagan
Google: Carl Sagan
Library: Carl Sagan
He will do a significantly better job of it than I ever could.

EDIT: What I will say, though, is that what we physically see with our own eyes isn't even close to everything there is to see.

[UnhealthyTruthseeker]

Care to elaborate, darling?

How elaborate do you want?

[Lackadaisical2]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

You don't even have to look that far to determine that the universe cannot be a 2d plane, since I'm existing in three dimensions right now...

That's not how it works, friend.

Care to elaborate, darling?

Youtube: Carl Sagan
Google: Carl Sagan
Library: Carl Sagan
He will do a significantly better job of it than I ever could.

And yet, I wasn't even talking about that in particular (i.e. I've not been saying theres only 2 or 3 dimensions). See UT's explanation of what I was getting at.

[Barringtonia]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

You, sir, have an atrocious understanding of 3D and 2D.

For me, the 2D and 3D are fine, I'm fine understanding the mechanics of 4D, I just have a hard time trying to imagine it.

..and I suppose that's where a lot of misunderstanding of science comes from, that where people can't imagine it in their heads, they start to feel it's not possible.

At some point, with limited understanding one has to accept but being all snooty about it doesn't help, if anything it entrenches the belief that you're wrong.

Half of science, I suspect, is in how you tell it, and that might be highly uninteresting for scientists but, well, ultimately it means we'll give you more money.

[Tunizcha]

Is there a Cliff Notes cartoon depiction of this stuff, I get the idea of a balloon - or a suppose a tarpaulin being stretched - but I can't quite picture it in my head.

Nothing too complicated, I have the attention span of an NSG poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WL_vtu4r1w

Riddle me this batman. If the Universe is a 2d plane, then why, when I look up I see stars. When I look all around I see stars. The universe is clearly a sphere containing all matter.

Because the universe is a 3d plane curved into a 4th dimension. Just like Carl said.

Having only four dimensions complicates things a little. After reading a bit on the Hyperspace theory, it seems that if the universe had more spatial planes, the laws of nature would be much more simple. In fact, superstring specifies 10 dimensions.