The Solar System is cool and scary.

[Michael_]

I regularly get posts by I Fucking Love Science on my FB timeline and they're always posting some cool stuff. As I read this article by them and sought out numerous photos of the things they were talking about, it's pretty easy to get a little overwhelmed by the possibilities that lie outside our planet. Since I'm procrastinating, I've decided to post some cool looking shit that might make your mind feel funny as you ponder the endless possibilities. Just knowing this stuff is real is pretty mind-blowing.

Saturn is always pretty intriguing:

Venus has metallic snow and it rains acid:

The massive storm of Jupiter has been on-going for over 400 years (probably longer):

Neptune is one of the planets where it's believed to rain diamonds:

Really blows my mind at all the other worlds out there. It's kind of scary, actually.

Hubble image of deep space:

Man has trouble comprehending the idea that the universe has no end, and even harder to comprehend is the idea that the universe does have an end.

Space scares me, bros.

 

[productionhead]

This nigga high ya'll

 

[efeezy]

I love this shit. If I was better at math, I'd have been an astronautocyst.

 

[Fatbat]

Hubble image of deep space:

It's these deep space images that do my fucking head in. That's just a tiny slice of space and those aren't stars but individual galaxies like the Milky Way, each containing a ridiculous number of stars. Number Of Stars In The Universe Could Be 300 Sextillion, Triple The Amount Scientists Previously Thought: Study << there might be 300 sextillion stars in the universe! That's 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

 

[droplister]

If anyone listens to Joe Rogan, he just had on Chris Hadfield.
Chris Hadfield « Joe Rogan (Podcast Site)

He was talking about how when people go to Mars they won't be Americans or even Earthlings. They will be Martians and how are those people going to deal with that psychologically. Too cool.

And here's why Chris Hadfield wins the world.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo"]Space Oddity - YouTube[/ame]

 

[wayn3]

It's these deep space images that do my fucking head in. That's just a tiny slice of space and those aren't stars but individual galaxies like the Milky Way, each containing a ridiculous number of stars. Number Of Stars In The Universe Could Be 300 Sextillion, Triple The Amount Scientists Previously Thought: Study << there might be 300 sextillion stars in the universe! That's 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

more like galaxy clusters.

 

[Michael_]

It's these deep space images that do my fucking head in. That's just a tiny slice of space and those aren't stars but individual galaxies like the Milky Way, each containing a ridiculous number of stars. Number Of Stars In The Universe Could Be 300 Sextillion, Triple The Amount Scientists Previously Thought: Study << there might be 300 sextillion stars in the universe! That's 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

I think the word "insignificant" doesn't even come close to how that makes me feel about my life in comparison. Space is damned scary!

 

[Fiver]

Man has trouble comprehending the idea that the universe has no end, and even harder to comprehend is the idea that the universe does have an end.

That shit freaks me out.

If space ends, what defines the end?

 

[Michael_]

This nigga high ya'll

Not high. This shit is damned amazing, scary, intriguing and humbling all at once! It's like getting kicked in the balls while you're ejaculating. (No idea where that comparison came from, but it's a winner.)

 

[Michael_]

Vast liquid oceans underneath the icy surface of the Jupiter Moon, Europa:

 

[efeezy]

 

[Fatbat]

more like galaxy clusters.

Each one of those swirls is an individual galaxy. In some cases you can see two or three galaxies colliding with one another if that's what you mean.

Raining diamonds? Fuck me..I'm rollin to Neptune bitches.

The problem is that the atmosphere is so toxic that they dissolve before they make it to the surface of the planet.

How about a whole planet, twice the size of Earth, made out of diamond? http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/10/a-planet-made-of-diamond-twice-the-size-of-earth/

 

[Michael_]

Each one of those swirls is an individual galaxy. In some cases you can see two or three galaxies colliding with one another if that's what you mean.

What's even more mind-blowing is that there's an unimaginable space beyond what that image shows, full of more of the same shit.

It makes one think that there's an infinite number of planets with near identical atmospheric conditions to that of Earth. Which would also suggest that there's the possibility of an infinite number of intelligent species out there.

:hollering:

 

[Michael_]

When looking at the universe as a whole, this event is probably extremely common. Which means, we're one collide away from having our insignificant existence vaporized. The fact that we're in a galaxy that isn't going through this common occurrence suggests an insane amount of luck on the side of our Milky Way.

 

[Michael_]

Our Milky Way:

Note where it shows "Our Solar System." It's entirely possible there may be hundred or thousands of Earth-like planets in our own galaxy. FML!

 

[wayn3]

When looking at the universe as a whole, this event is probably extremely common. Which means, we're one collide away from having our insignificant existence vaporized. The fact that we're in a galaxy that isn't going through this common occurrence suggests an insane amount of luck on the side of our Milky Way.

the milky way is actually going through a collision. thing is, galaxies are almost entirely empty space. its really unlikely that our sun is crushing into another star.

physics really isnt a lot like action movies.

and the timescale these things are happening on are silly. make a picture of those galaxies 100 years later and you wont notice any real difference.

 

[swiftmoney]

When looking at the universe as a whole, this event is probably extremely common. Which means, we're one collide away from having our insignificant existence vaporized. The fact that we're in a galaxy that isn't going through this common occurrence suggests an insane amount of luck on the side of our Milky Way.

Not entirely true. We are apparantly on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy.

Edit: All be it not for another 4 billion years.

 

[Michael_]

the milky way is actually going through a collision. thing is, galaxies are almost entirely empty space. its really unlikely that our sun is crushing into another star.

physics really isnt a lot like action movies.

It is? All I could find was the impending collision with Andromeda, speculated to occur in 4 billion years. Andromeda

I'm not a physicist, so it all plays out in my mind like a movie. In either case, yikes.

 

[Michael_]

Another deep-space image covering .2 sq degrees: The Hawaii Hubble Deep Field North

Um.... yeah.

Edit: Maybe that's not deep space, I'm not entirely sure. Don't have time to research what that project is actually doing.

 

[Michael_]

That shit freaks me out.

If space ends, what defines the end?

There's all kinds of theories out there; theories I don't read because they are a complete mind-fuck.

Furthest viewable item known to man is a galaxy 13 billion light years away (Record-breaking galaxy found at the edge of the Universe : Bad Astronomy

It leaves one to wonder if the black nothingness of space stretches on and eventually becomes devoid of any matter at all... just nothingness that goes on forever. Or, if the black nothingness has a legitimate end, and what's after that?

After you pass the edge of the universe?: