The scale of the universe - an interactive demo

[Analog]

Use the slider bar to see how things stack up...

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347

:awe::awe::awe::awe:

 

[Matthiasa]

Ahh, we need to travel outside the visible universe.

 

[disappoint]

Ahh, we need to travel outside the visible universe.

Yeeeaaah...we can't even travel inside the visible universe...well not far. Let's take it one step at a time shall we? Not like we have a choice.

 

[Hacp]

Yeeeaaah...we can't even travel inside the visible universe...well not far. Let's take it one step at a time shall we? Not like we have a choice.

I'm traveling inside the universe right now dude.

 

[disappoint]

I'm traveling inside the universe right now dude.

I meant not far. You should know that already, because I didn't forget to post it.

In other news, I notice the visible universe is ~14 billion light years, but the estimated size of the universe is 93 billion light years. How did they come up with that estimate if it's unobservable?

 

[frostedflakes]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion

Can achieve velocities up to 0.1C using fusion reactions for the pulses. Would allow us to reach Alpha Centauri in only 44 years. :awe:

 

[SAWYER]

I can't seem to wrap my head around what was here before the universe, if it was empty how was anything created. And if it is ever expanding, what is at the edge of where it has yet to expand.

 

[xanis]

that's friggin' mindblowing

 

[Nik]

I can't seem to wrap my head around what was here before the universe, if it was empty how was anything created. And if it is ever expanding, what is at the edge of where it has yet to expand.

I'm sure there's a group of human experts who sat down and wrote a bunch of fairy tales into a book to explain all of it.

 

[xanis]

I'm sure there's a group of human experts who sat down and wrote a bunch of fairy tales into a book to explain all of it.

/lawnchair
/popcorn

 

[mizzou]

what I hate about the first 1/2 is that most of it is theory, it's so hard for me to believe it if i can't see it =(

 

[mizzou]

oh, and is this a map size i can pick on alpha centauri? lol

 

[disappoint]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion

Can achieve velocities up to 0.1C using fusion reactions for the pulses. Would allow us to reach Alpha Centauri in only 44 years. :awe:

Interesting. But where does it say 0.1c and 44 years? I see 100 years in that article:

Project Longshot was a NASA-sponsored research project carried out in conjunction with the US Naval Academy in the early 1990s. Longshot was in some ways a development of the basic Daedalus concept, in that it used magnetically-funneled ICF as a rocket. The key difference was that they felt that the reaction could not power both the rocket and the systems, and instead included a 300 kW conventional nuclear reactor for running the ship. The added weight of the reactor reduced performance somewhat, but even using LiD fuel it would be able to reach Alpha Centauri in 100 years, (approx. velocity of 13,411 km/s, or 30,000,000 mph)

 

[frostedflakes]

Sorry, looks like that estimate was from another article. 100 years means it would be traveling closer to 0.5C. Just a different estimate, looks like the calculations I used were made by Freeman Dyson quite a few years earlier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion)

 

[Analog]

Carl Sagan would have liked that....

 

[Nik]

/lawnchair
/popcorn

:twisted:

 

[TallBill]

Absolutely amazing to think about. Brain hurts now though.