Compared to the entire universe, we are even smaller than a single atom from our own perspective.
"The most astouding fact about the universe is the knowlege that the atoms that comprise life on earth, that make up the human body, are tracable to the crucibles that cooked light elements to heavy elements in their core under extreme pressures and temperatures. These stars went unstable in their later years. They collapsed and then exploded, scattering their enriched guts accross the galaxy. Guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems, stars with orbiting planets. And those planets now have the ingredients for life itself.
So when I look up at the night sky, and I know that 'yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe,' but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up; many people feel small because they're small and the universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars."
-Niel deGrasse Tyson
Mind blown (crazy sciency stuff)
Started by bass cadet, Feb 09 2012 02:45 PM
7 replies to this topic
#2
LD50
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Posted 09 February 2012 - 02:49 PM
makes you wish you were above a [0] >.>
#3
SpleenBeGone
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Posted 09 February 2012 - 02:59 PM
The amazing part is most of it is empty.
#4
Guest_ElatedOwl_*
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Posted 09 February 2012 - 03:58 PM
So I guess we're all stars...
Empty is an interesting word. Can anything really be empty?The amazing part is most of it is empty.
#5
SpleenBeGone
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Posted 09 February 2012 - 04:02 PM
It can be in a vacuum.
#6
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Posted 09 February 2012 - 04:13 PM
Pardon my speaking out of the ass - but has a true vacuum ever been created or observed? I was under the impression when vacuums were brought up in regards to experiments or it wasn't a "true" vacuum.It can be in a vacuum.
EDIT: I did a little bit of searching - the idea of a pure vacuum existing in the current context is highly speculative. From what I can understand (which can be wrong) as long as there is something nothing cannot exist. (at least, not pure nothing-ness)
To say that nothing will never exist (something defined as not existing existing? fuck quantum mechanics) or has never existed cannot be true, though.
#7
SpleenBeGone
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Posted 09 February 2012 - 05:01 PM
Pretty much everything astronomical is speculative at this point. >.>
#8
bass cadet
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Posted 09 February 2012 - 05:21 PM
indeed...there are probably ridiculous laws of physics operating everywhere, even in empty space, that our current understanding couldn't even hope to explain, and despite the fact that we live in the age that is becoming more tech-savvy, we're still just primitive monkeys stuck on this planet unable to see what's truly out there.
