Posts Tagged: ‘Universe’

You asked: How do we know the age of the universe? Marshall Brain Answered: Scientists currently estimate the age of the universe to be 13.75 billion years old. This is the number of years that have elapsed since the Big Bang. But how do they determine that number? They do not use a single technique. [...]

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I remember many years ago in the mid-90s — during the zenith of paranoia in the alien abduction phenomenon — the whole affair being offhandedly dismissed by Car Sagan, I believe it was. Sagan (I think) mentioned that every description of aliens who were visiting Earth and carting off country folk for probing and the like all shared a suspicious similarity to humans. Despite the differences — like communicating telepathically — the alien abductors bore a real resemblance to people in that they had a roundish head atop a neck, a face that featured a mouth and eyes, used, ostensibly, to engage in sensing the world. They walked on two legs and were capable of and driven by malicious intent or callous indifference to the suffering of their captives. They were pretty much a rough sketch of how humanity saw itself.

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How did the universe create complexity given the second law of thermodynamics? It’s a fascinating question, because this is how life and humans were created in our universe. Here is an explanation in 18 minutes, starting at the beginning of time and following history to the present day. If you would like to learn more [...]

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Chances are that you are sitting in a chair right now, so it seems like you are stationary. But in fact you are moving through the universe at a tremendous speed at this very moment. Let’s take a look at where all that motion is coming from. The first thing to consider is the earth’s [...]

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It’s our universe from the smallest to the largest items, presented through an amazing animation: The Scale of the Universe Here is another perspective on the same idea: How big is the universe? See also: How to get home if you are lost in the universe and What does it mean when they say the [...]

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You may have heard the idea that the universe is expanding. How do we know this, and what does it mean? The idea is explained in this video: As the video explains, the expanding universe concept was first demonstrated by Edwin Hubble. He looked at a number of galaxies in our vicinity and noticed that [...]

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We know that the universe is big – billions of lightyears across. But how can a human being get a perspective on the size of the universe? This video is best watched full screen in HD, but anyway you watch it, it puts the whole universe into some kind of perspective: In this post there [...]

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Mystery ‘dark flow’ extends towards edge of universe – “SOMETHING big is out there beyond the visible edge of our universe. That’s the conclusion of the largest analysis to date of over 1000 galaxy clusters streaming in one direction at blistering speeds. Some researchers say this so-called “dark flow” is a sign that other universes [...]

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Disruptive Change – “In 1981, your $100 got you about a second of HD Video. By 1993, your $100 could cover about a minute of HD Video. By 2000, your $100 got you about an hour and 15 minutes of HD Video. By 2006, your $100 could buy you 1 and 2/3 days of HD [...]

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In another installment of space music, I have to help spread the word about this marvelous audiovisual creation by John Boswell, AKA melodysheep of Color Pulse Music. What he’s done here is take samples and footage from Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” and Stephen Hawking’s “Universe” and mixed it all into a musical tribute. What might have come off as parody in the hands of a lesser artist really conveys a sense of cosmological awe and wonder.

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