I didn't see this topic in the Science section so I sought to do it justice.
Space Science has so much to do with Science. After all, it covers many aspects
of Science. It doesn't cover just one particular topic But many :
Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology,
Physics, Quantum Physics, Quantum mechanics, Quantum Theories, Space-
Time Continuum, Theory of Relativity,
and so much more are some of the many
Branches of Space Science. Including the idea that : we are not alone in the Universe ( Extra-Terrestrials or Aliens ) We are as many of the brightest minds in human history and civilization have stated " Humanity, Earth, and the Milky Way ( our galaxy ) are just a small speck in the Universe " . I humbly welcome all discussions on Space science, I am not
an expert on space science, I am just a
student eager and ready to learn .
maybe we can all learn together.

cool post, which one are you wanting to chat about?

We can discuss what ever topic about space science. What is the first thing that pops into your mind ; when you hear the word Space Science ?

Matter and energy, relativity and time.

The Universe is more than what's out there.
The Universe is also within us.
It has a range from the quantum to the expanse.
It encompasses the physical to the imagination.

Since we are part of the Universe, when we dream, the Universe is dreaming.
When we imagine, the Universe is imagining.
It includes other dimensions, strange laws of nature and many, many unknowns.
Everything that has happened and could happen, happens within the Universe.

Every level of existence is filled with space.
Not just the space between planets, stars, galaxies and super-clusters of galaxies. There's space between the elements of atoms too. Its all relevant to size.

What I find interesting is at every relative size, something is moving.
That movement causes heat and is called energy.
Now that gravitational waves are real, we know gravity (mass) affects movement over distance.

What would be the effect on the Earth if Jupiter suddenly disappeared?
What would happen to the solar system if a black hole passed between Sol and Proxima Centauri?
What is going to happen when Andromeda and the Milky Way converge?

I don't get why they think time is anything other than an equation... personally, I think it's just a unit of measurement, same as a gallon or a mile...so I can't believe in their spacetime theories....

Space Exploration, Interstellar Travel
and the idea that we are not the only
living beings in the galaxy, universe,
and the multiverse. The possibility of intelligent life ( extaterrestial beings )
in the furthest reaches in the universe.
Humanity reaching new heights ;
the new era of our existence. I for
one, never believed for a second that
we were alone in the universe. Imagine
Interstellar Travel, voyaging through out
there's universe into other galaxies and
new solar systems. Discovering different
planets which contain different beings
which humanity was unaware existed.
Contemplate how it feel like to meet them for very first time. It would be as words could never describe. All of humanity united ( Earth United )
working together exploring universe.
Star ship fleets sailing through space
like ships sail through the oceans.

Considering how many space cadets that Mingle2 has, I figured that this topic would be much more popular.

I think of 'time' as 'duration'. The duration of change between one static state and another.
A second, minute, hour, whatever is merely a standard used to denote a period of duration. In that sense, TIME is a unit of measurement of a specific period of duration. Since duration is constant there really is no unit to measure it because it hasn't completed.
There also is no measurement of the smallest instance of change in duration. No defined set period, we measure instances in pico-seconds or in other words, fractions of seconds, with the second being the standard that is fractioned.


Planck Length is a distance. It has a starting point and an ending point.
There is no measurement of the instant of change that happens at the initiation of movement (actual change of static state to moving). Only the duration of time that the movement occurs, measured in fractions of a second.

This is a fantasy version of science fiction.
I really like science fiction too.
Consider the following;

Everything we know and everything we think we know and everyway we think
is based on our experiences obtained on one small planet
circling a common star in a single spiral galaxy.

The Universe is so vast and has such a duration some people
postulate that if it can happen it has or will happen somewhere
at sometime in the Universe.

Human beings take things for granted when postulating on the nature
of the Universe.
That we would recognize alien life if we encounter it.
That intelligence is based on our ideas of intelligence.
That civilizations build things, constructs with complexity.
That intelligent life holds the same morals and values as we do.
That faster-than-light travel is possible in a construct of matter.
That there is commerce, fleets of starships, great planet-wide cities
That beings are bilateral, think with a brain, eat food.

Who are we to dictate what life is to a Universe of this magnitude?
The Drake Equation shows us the possible proliferation of intelligent civilizations in the Universe. However, the Drake Equation predefines those civilizations to our standards which are based on one species on one planet during a specific time in duration.
Granted, there may well be or have been civilizations that meet these specifications but its more likely there are more instances that don't fit our established guidelines of what it means to be alive or civilized.

Science fiction is also limited in its scope.
Look at Star Trek's transporter technology.
Why are there doors?
Food replicator technology.
Why are there farms?
Holodeck technology.
Why is there furniture, beds, control consoles?

People are locked into their idea of what things are supposed to be based on the experiences we have on this planet.

Try to imagine 360 deg clear vision.
Try to imagine having a conversation with a tree.
Imagine a being that is mature but only a few inches tall or a child and 500 miles long.
A creature that doesn't breathe atmosphere that can survive without protection in the void of space.
A ship that makes a Dyson Sphere appear as a marble.
A ship that holds an entire colony that can land on a speck of dust floating in the air in front of your nose.
A civilization that has no greed, no money.
A civilization that hates other life, all other life.
A civilization that has one devout religion and ignores non-believers.
A creature that can pass thru solid objects like we walk thru our atmosphere.

Open your mind when contemplating the nature of the Universe.
Try not to be shackled by our own limitations in unlimited possibilities.

I agree with you ; how can we be expected to believe that Intelligent life outside the realms of our understanding
be expected to believe anything like humans, or expect them to be below their level of intelligent standards ?
Moreover, to live like the human species does ? Their was a scientist a years ago
who studied a meteorite from Mars ; a team of scientists discovered a tiny worm-like species ( which was from Mars ). One one of the scientists, after observing this extraterrestrial worm-like species ; gave his personal opinion, and
decided that this tiny worm-like extraterrestrial creature did not meet the criteria of living being. Why ? because he argued that because this tiny
worm-like creature was not same size as the worms of this ( Earth ) planet. Many of the scientists disagreed with him.
Certain humans beings with a closed mind have a certain preconceived notion ; that if there is intelligent life,
they are automatically expected to be like the species on earth. That they look similar to us, breath air like us ( how do we know that they require oxygen just because the life on earth require oxygen
to survive ), or have the same limbs as us.

Space Science, to me is not the discussion on the theoretical characteristics of exobiology. Its a discussion of mass, distance, time and wave-forms. From the quantum to the mega-structure.

exobiology
the branch of science that deals with the possibility and likely nature of life on other planets or in space.

Since we have not established that there is life anywhere else in the Universe, exobiology is speculative at best, childish fantasy at worst.

What we do understand from observation and measurements made, the Universe is a wondrous place. I'm awe-stuck from its diversity and scale.

I thought that was your intent from your OP.

I've watched enough scifi movies and shows to know that most people have no idea when they talk about space. Some think a light year is a measurement of time. Others will spout off how they traveled 500 million miles to get to a distant star system.
A light year is a measurement of distance.
A light year is about 5.88 trillion miles, 500 million miles is very short distance by comparison and our nearest star (not Sol), Proxima Centauri is around 4.3 light years away. Roughly 25 TRILLION miles distant and that is close compared to most stars.

People think the Earth is a big ball and that the Sun is a big ball (a million Earths could fit inside it), it would take 1.3 million Earths to fill up the Sun. The Sun is tiny compared to some objects in the Universe.



What gets me is there are even larger structures in the Universe which are small compared to the Universe itself and we are not even sure how big the Universe is because we are limited in our view. We are 'forced' to look back in time and can only look back so far.

When we look at the stars and other objects in the sky we are not seeing the stars as they are, we are seeing them as they were when the light left them. We also may not be seeing the newest stars. Ones that have not emitted light long enough to reach our detectors.
If the Sun went dark, it would take about 8 minutes for us to see it.
If Proxima Centauri went dark, it would take about 4.3 years to see it.
VY Canis Majoris is around 4,892 light years from Earth, if it went dark as I'm typing this, we wouldn't know for 4,892 years. If a new star were to ignite this very second a mere 5,000 light years away, we wouldn't know it was there for another 5,000 years.

Everything you see is in the past. The proximity to your eye and the speed of light can make it seem instantaneous but there is a duration from when the light leaves the object till it reaches your eye and a duration from the time the light strikes your photo-receptors and those signals reach your brain and you identify that signal as a detection.
Technically, what we call the present is actually the past.

Wow that is so cool. can you tell me
what a black hole is, super please ?
I only opened this section of space science because I really do want to
learn everything there is to know
about it ? My entire it fascinated me.

How about " Space balls".. great movie

still, that doesn't seem to change anything...an inch or a mile, still just a unit of measurement...a nano second or an eon, still just a unit of measurement...a perception, nothing more

a black holes is matter, compressed to the point where there in no space between the atoms, or very little, anyway... maybe 1000 sun's compressed to the size of a basketball

^^^What He Said^^^

I might add this...

A "Black Hole" is neither black nor a hole.
Its actually a "White Singularity".

They 'appear' black because the gravity is so great photons can't escape the gravity to reach your eye (detector).
Mass is not 'sucked into' a black hole, it falls onto a singularity.
Absorbing mass causes heat. The singularity is white hot, hotter than a star. We just can't detect it.

What we can detect is the radiation at the black hole's poles.



The Milky Way galaxy can be considered the accretion disk of the super-massive black hole Sagittarius A at the center.



The Sun (Sol) is part of the Orion Arm



The bulge in the middle is Sagittarius A, super-massive black hole.
It is spiraling towards the singularity.

Within the Milky Way accretion disk, there are smaller mass black holes which produce eddys in the motion of the spiraling. They set up gravitational waves which affect other mass in the galaxy. As matter gets closer to the super-massive singularity it moves faster and heats up (glows brighter).
Since black holes have massive gravity they will appear to be void at any view. Black because there is an absence of data being transmitted to your eye (detector). We see Sagittarius A as a ball of fire because its event horizon has a lot of super hot matter that can still make it to our detectors. We see a sphere, not a hole.

Duration occurs whether it is measured or not.
It is said that an object that is at true absolute zero cannot be seen.
This is because it is frozen, it has no duration because change does not occur, it is frozen. If radition strikes that object it heats by movement.
It is no longer at absolute zero. It has duration of change.
We call that duration of change time.
Everything is a perception. The only thing that isn't is something that has achieved true absolute zero. True absolute zero is not possible in a dynamic Universe. Something interacts with everything whether it be matter or energy. There is movement at every level of relativity and if there is movement there is duration. Even at the level of a boson.

There are also what is known as infinitesimal black holes created in particle collisions. Their properties are relative to size, proximity of matter (food) and duration.

Thank You So Very Much. That was so informative.