The Universe is Lame

rammstein · 01-15-2008, 09:13 AM

We are billions of light years away from some stars. That means that if I had a sweet rocketship that could travel at the speed of light, it would still take me billions of years to get there. And if THAT wasn't bad enough, the stupid universe is expanding. So as I travel, the distance is getting GREATER STILL. How much is it expanding? It is expanding at a speed such that an object 4 billion light years away this instant would potentially take 13 billion years to get to travelling at the speed of light. So ok fine- there are places in the universe that we can never get to.

What about the closest stuff?

The closest star system to the Sun is the Alpha Centauri system. Of the three stars in the system Proxima Centauri is the nearest star. It is 4.22 light years away. The fastest space probe we've sent up, the Voyager 1, travels at 39,000mph. If this was sent to Proxima Centauri, it would take 17,000 years to get there.

Some stuff to read:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/ipspaper.html

http://www.physorg.com/news8817.html

These articles almost make you feel excited that interstellar travel might be possible, but I call shenanigans on the whole thing. I don't think its going to be happening in the next 500 years, which is a bunch of garbage. When I watched sci-fi growing up in the 80s, all of the space movies were set in the early 2000s. I thought I was going to be an intergalactic pirate or something. Now I am instead in a cubicle working as an analyst, driving a Honda. What gives?

frogger · 01-15-2008, 09:15 AM

What if Porsche got into space vehicles. Hmmmmmm.

motion · 01-15-2008, 09:17 AM

I blame it all on cheap oil.

dd74 · 01-15-2008, 09:25 AM

The only hope is whomever/whatever is out there might find us.

Because we'd rather fight each other over ridiculousness like religion and oil, while at the same time killing this planet, you may as well forget about us even making it to Mars in our lifetime, much less Proxima Centauri.

rammstein · 01-15-2008, 09:27 AM

If they're out there, and they've found us, they probably watch us on TV for their own amusement and don't plan to help us out at all.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Why would anyone bother trying to reach some place that probably died out or blew up long before its light reached the Earth? Plenty of stuff we can see disappeared long ago, but its light is just now, relatively speaking, getting to us. If Alpha Centauri went dark in our telescopes tomorrow, that means it actually happened over four years ago. If we were able to travel there, imagine the four year time delay in communication back to the Earth! There has to be some loophole in quantum physics that allows travel, if not faster than the speed of light, at least some trap door in space/time for getting to those faraway places. I doubt any of us will live to see it, but it's cool to think about.

Rot 911 · 01-15-2008, 09:30 AM

But I have read a theory that eventually the universe will quit expanding and then collapse. So we can just sit here in our barcaloungers and wait for them to come to us!

dd74 · 01-15-2008, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rammstein

If they're out there, and they've found us, they probably watch us on TV for their own amusement and don't plan to help us out at all.

Who knows? You do need to know their motives though. Problem is the motives could be infinite.

rammstein · 01-15-2008, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

There has to be some loophole in quantum physics that allows travel, if not faster than the speed of light, at least some trap door in space/time for getting to those faraway places. I doubt any of us will live to see it, but it's cool to think about.

Read some of the stuff I linked- there's some information on this. Its a bunch of theoretical hoosafudge, but its the only plausible way for any of this to ever happen.

dd74 · 01-15-2008, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Why would anyone bother trying to reach some place that probably died out or blew up long before its light reached the Earth? Plenty of stuff we can see disappeared long ago, but its light is just now, relatively speaking, getting to us. If Alpha Centauri went dark in our telescopes tomorrow, that means it actually happened over four years ago. If we were able to travel there, imagine the four year time delay in communication back to the Earth! There has to be some loophole in quantum physics that allows travel, if not faster than the speed of light, at least some trap door in space/time for getting to those faraway places. I doubt any of us will live to see it, but it's cool to think about.

Correct. I think what has to happen is one needs to suspend their idea of traditional space travel.

Black holes might be the way to do this.

strupgolf · 01-15-2008, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frogger

What if Porsche got into space vehicles. Hmmmmmm.

You would have to stop on the Moon to adjust the valves and change the oil.

TimothyFarrar · 01-15-2008, 12:26 PM

Rammstein, the 21st century concept of space travel is all wrong.

See our problem is that we are made of water and not anti-freeze so when temps get cold (ie like in space) the water crystallizes, expands and ruptures everything.

What's this have to do with space you ask, well 17,000 years is an awful long time, you couldn't keep anything "powered" to keep your payload (ie humans) warm enough. Best case, you take your best aim, fire your UFO at as close to the speed of light as possible, shut everything down and go into a deep freeze, until you get close enough to something like a Sun to warm up again.

So really space travel as more to do with the ability to thaw a 0 kelvin human, or perhaps semi-human adapted to be frozen.

RickM · RickM's Garage

Now where'd I put that worm hole?......

1fastredsc · 01-15-2008, 12:42 PM

I actually saw something sort of kind of related to this discussion.....
http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/138855/Ted_Talks_Earth_in_it_s_Final_Century.html
It's crazy to think that if we are half way through in the timeline of our galaxies lifespan, starting life as simple single cell organisms to evolve to what we are today, what will the human race be in another 2.5-3 billion years?

RickM · RickM's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1fastredsc

what will the human race be in another 2.5-3 billion years?

A very, very distant memory.

Rot 911 · 01-15-2008, 12:51 PM

I think I have come up with a solution. A theory if you will. Let's assume that light moves in a wave as shown in the blue line in my diagram. We can make our rocket go in a straight line from one point to the other. Voila! We have changed the light-time continuum. Of course my theory needs a bit of refinement.

rammstein · 01-15-2008, 12:55 PM

Silly though that may be, its the basic premise of warping the space-time continuum I think.

Shenanigans. SHENANIGANS!!!

Rot 911 · 01-15-2008, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rammstein

Silly though that may be, its the basic premise of warping the space-time continuum I think.

Shenanigans. SHENANIGANS!!!

Don't be trying to steal my idea!

RickM · RickM's Garage

Let's put this in perspective....

That means that...
our whole solar system...
could be, like...
one tiny atom in the fingernail
of some other giant being.

This is too much!

That means...

one tiny atom in my fingernail could be--
-Could be one little...
tiny universe.

Could l buy some pot from you?

RickM · RickM's Garage

The renowned gentleman can speak for himself...