Interesting Space Facts.
Discussion
Here's one.
Winds ten times stronger than a hurricane on Earth swirl around Saturn’s equator reaching up to 1100 km/h – and they never let up: even for a moment.
http://www.amazingspacefacts.50webs.com/index.html
This one of Don's still haunts me...
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) should be visible shortly after sunset. If you have dark skies, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. It won't look very interesting until to consider that it consists of 1 trillion stars and is hurtling towards us at over 200,000 miles per hour. Nevertheless, it won't collide with the Milky Way for 4.5 billion years, by which time the Earth may have been gobbled up by our own Sun.
Winds ten times stronger than a hurricane on Earth swirl around Saturn’s equator reaching up to 1100 km/h – and they never let up: even for a moment.
http://www.amazingspacefacts.50webs.com/index.html
This one of Don's still haunts me...
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) should be visible shortly after sunset. If you have dark skies, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. It won't look very interesting until to consider that it consists of 1 trillion stars and is hurtling towards us at over 200,000 miles per hour. Nevertheless, it won't collide with the Milky Way for 4.5 billion years, by which time the Earth may have been gobbled up by our own Sun.
Betelgeuse, in Orion, is a very interesting star.
It is a red supergiant, and it is really, really big. If it were at the centre of our Solar system, then its surface would lie beyond the orbit of Mars. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars would not exist.
As a Red Supergiant, it is in the final stages life. Soon, possibly within a million years, it will go Supernova. When it does, it will be a truely awesome sight - probably visible during the day. At night it will be by far the brightest star.
How do we know this? In 1054AD, a star went supernova in the constellation of Taurus. It was visible in the daytime. We now know that this formed the Crab Nebula, and it is about 6,500 light years away. Betelgeuse is 10 times closer, at only 560 ly distant, so when it goes bang it will probably be 100 times brighter.
Of course, Betelgeuse could have gone Supernova at any time in the last 560 years and we wouldn't know anything about it... yet.
Don
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It is a red supergiant, and it is really, really big. If it were at the centre of our Solar system, then its surface would lie beyond the orbit of Mars. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars would not exist.
As a Red Supergiant, it is in the final stages life. Soon, possibly within a million years, it will go Supernova. When it does, it will be a truely awesome sight - probably visible during the day. At night it will be by far the brightest star.
How do we know this? In 1054AD, a star went supernova in the constellation of Taurus. It was visible in the daytime. We now know that this formed the Crab Nebula, and it is about 6,500 light years away. Betelgeuse is 10 times closer, at only 560 ly distant, so when it goes bang it will probably be 100 times brighter.
Of course, Betelgeuse could have gone Supernova at any time in the last 560 years and we wouldn't know anything about it... yet.
Don
--
Chilli said:
Here's one.
Winds ten times stronger than a hurricane on Earth swirl around Saturn’s equator reaching up to 1100 km/h – and they never let up: even for a moment.
http://www.amazingspacefacts.50webs.com/index.html
This one of Don's still haunts me...
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) should be visible shortly after sunset. If you have dark skies, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. It won't look very interesting until to consider that it consists of 1 trillion stars and is hurtling towards us at over 200,000 miles per hour. Nevertheless, it won't collide with the Milky Way for 4.5 billion years, by which time the Earth may have been gobbled up by our own Sun.
Some of them were very interesting!Winds ten times stronger than a hurricane on Earth swirl around Saturn’s equator reaching up to 1100 km/h – and they never let up: even for a moment.
http://www.amazingspacefacts.50webs.com/index.html
This one of Don's still haunts me...
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) should be visible shortly after sunset. If you have dark skies, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. It won't look very interesting until to consider that it consists of 1 trillion stars and is hurtling towards us at over 200,000 miles per hour. Nevertheless, it won't collide with the Milky Way for 4.5 billion years, by which time the Earth may have been gobbled up by our own Sun.
The heart of a star reaches 16 million °C. A grain of sand this hot would kill someone 150 km away.
Edited by RobbieKB on Thursday 25th October 14:14
Chilli said:
This one of Don's still haunts me...
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) should be visible shortly after sunset. If you have dark skies, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. It won't look very interesting until to consider that it consists of 1 trillion stars and is hurtling towards us at over 200,000 miles per hour. Nevertheless, it won't collide with the Milky Way for 4.5 billion years, by which time the Earth may have been gobbled up by our own Sun.
Not to worry as the next mega asteroid impact is overdue, we'll be killed off in millions of years not billions The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) should be visible shortly after sunset. If you have dark skies, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. It won't look very interesting until to consider that it consists of 1 trillion stars and is hurtling towards us at over 200,000 miles per hour. Nevertheless, it won't collide with the Milky Way for 4.5 billion years, by which time the Earth may have been gobbled up by our own Sun.
TX.
Terminator X said:
Chilli said:
This one of Don's still haunts me...
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) should be visible shortly after sunset. If you have dark skies, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. It won't look very interesting until to consider that it consists of 1 trillion stars and is hurtling towards us at over 200,000 miles per hour. Nevertheless, it won't collide with the Milky Way for 4.5 billion years, by which time the Earth may have been gobbled up by our own Sun.
Not to worry as the next mega asteroid impact is overdue, we'll be killed off in millions of years not billions The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) should be visible shortly after sunset. If you have dark skies, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. It won't look very interesting until to consider that it consists of 1 trillion stars and is hurtling towards us at over 200,000 miles per hour. Nevertheless, it won't collide with the Milky Way for 4.5 billion years, by which time the Earth may have been gobbled up by our own Sun.
TX.
Eric Mc said:
If you look elsewhere in the universe, you can see plenty of galactic collisions going on at this momemnt. They are like the slowest of slow motion car crashes.
This one's being going on for around 1 billion years.
]
Really numpty question......This one's being going on for around 1 billion years.
]
If you were on a planet that was part of a galactic collision, and ignoring gravitational and atmospheric questions, it would be fast wouldn't it? A planet crashing into you wouldn't be gently nudging your planet I assume? I've often wondered.
Alhough galactic collisions look spectacular from a distance, galaxies are still mostly empty space.
So the dangers brought about by these collisions is not so much the risk of stars and planets bumping into each - but the interruption of their stable orbits by gravitational interactions.
For instance, if our galaxy was undergoing such a collision, the disruption of the fairly stable Milky Way galaxy could cause our sun and its planetary retinue to start migrating towards the centre of the galaxy - or it could caue the solar system to be ejected from the galaxy altogether.
Of course, these events would take place over millions or even huundreds of millions of years.
So the dangers brought about by these collisions is not so much the risk of stars and planets bumping into each - but the interruption of their stable orbits by gravitational interactions.
For instance, if our galaxy was undergoing such a collision, the disruption of the fairly stable Milky Way galaxy could cause our sun and its planetary retinue to start migrating towards the centre of the galaxy - or it could caue the solar system to be ejected from the galaxy altogether.
Of course, these events would take place over millions or even huundreds of millions of years.
Eric Mc said:
Alhough galactic collisions look spectacular from a distance, galaxies are still mostly empty space.
So the dangers brought about by these collisions is not so much the risk of stars and planets bumping into each - but the interruption of their stable orbits by gravitational interactions.
For instance, if our galaxy was undergoing such a collision, the disruption of the fairly stable Milky Way galaxy could cause our sun and its planetary retinue to start migrating towards the centre of the galaxy - or it could caue the solar system to be ejected from the galaxy altogether.
Of course, these events would take place over millions or even huundreds of millions of years.
Yup. Very few things would actually collide as such, but lots of orbits get thrown out. The chances of two planets or stars from different galaxies colliding would be miniscule. So the dangers brought about by these collisions is not so much the risk of stars and planets bumping into each - but the interruption of their stable orbits by gravitational interactions.
For instance, if our galaxy was undergoing such a collision, the disruption of the fairly stable Milky Way galaxy could cause our sun and its planetary retinue to start migrating towards the centre of the galaxy - or it could caue the solar system to be ejected from the galaxy altogether.
Of course, these events would take place over millions or even huundreds of millions of years.
Not sure what the effects would be within the solar system itself, but you can imagine that the orbits of commets etc may get disturbed and cause more collisions that way.
I love to entertain the kids with facts that they can understand, such as;
If you shrank the solar system down so that the sun was the size of a large orange, the Earth would be the size of a pin-head nearly 11 meters away.
Jupiter would be the size of a small marble over 55 meters away.
The nearest star would be nearly 7 miles away. The next nearest would be slightly more than that, more or less in the opposite direction.
The sums are rough, but it gives a good sense of how small we really are.
If you shrank the solar system down so that the sun was the size of a large orange, the Earth would be the size of a pin-head nearly 11 meters away.
Jupiter would be the size of a small marble over 55 meters away.
The nearest star would be nearly 7 miles away. The next nearest would be slightly more than that, more or less in the opposite direction.
The sums are rough, but it gives a good sense of how small we really are.
Eric Mc said:
Alhough galactic collisions look spectacular from a distance, galaxies are still mostly empty space.
So the dangers brought about by these collisions is not so much the risk of stars and planets bumping into each - but the interruption of their stable orbits by gravitational interactions.
For instance, if our galaxy was undergoing such a collision, the disruption of the fairly stable Milky Way galaxy could cause our sun and its planetary retinue to start migrating towards the centre of the galaxy - or it could caue the solar system to be ejected from the galaxy altogether.
Of course, these events would take place over millions or even huundreds of millions of years.
Interesting and mind boggling.So the dangers brought about by these collisions is not so much the risk of stars and planets bumping into each - but the interruption of their stable orbits by gravitational interactions.
For instance, if our galaxy was undergoing such a collision, the disruption of the fairly stable Milky Way galaxy could cause our sun and its planetary retinue to start migrating towards the centre of the galaxy - or it could caue the solar system to be ejected from the galaxy altogether.
Of course, these events would take place over millions or even huundreds of millions of years.
I did spend one one evening this summer in the Med gazing at the stars. 'Awsome' is over used these days, but is appropriate when trying to comprehend what we can see..... And that's with the naked eye.
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