Poll: SCIENCE! (Specifically, about the universe.)

[FalloutJack]

So, it happens that I've been put into a kind of science-y mood right now. I don my labcoat for discussion of weird aspects of the universe. People have been telling me strange things and I further read into stranger ones. We've filmed a black hole caught in the act of swallowing a sun, there's a planet of diamond and a planet or water (All of it!), and then there are fields of a 'dark energy' which I read about in a magazine but - as far as I can tell - we have no idea what it really does. Maybe it's linked with dark matter. I dunno.

I just thought I'd shake the tree of knowledge and see what pops out. What's weird for you in the universe?

 

[DJjaffacake]

Yay, science! In 4 billion years the Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way, but the distance between stars is so great that the chances of any stars or planets colliding is almost nothing. It's not clear whether the two galaxies will merge or be scattered by the forces involved.

[sub][sub][sub]Also, Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a ***** in space[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[repeating integers]

I love space.

It hurts my brain to think about how fuckin' huge it is.

 

[Luftwaffles]

I like how we are all literally made out of stardust.

 

[Thaluikhain]

This computer I am using right now is made from, and powered by, at least in a large part, by the remains of living things from dozens of millions of years ago.

 

[SckizoBoy]

This computer I am using right now is made from, and powered by, at least in a large part, by the remains of living things from dozens of millions of years ago.

I'd take that further and say you are made from, and powered by, at least in a large part, by the remains of living things from dozens of millions of years ago...

Now there's a thought...

 

[piinyouri]

Everything. The more I learn about how truly weird and alien our universe is (and may be) draws me further into it's mysteries.

I love the fat that someday in the far future, the universe will go dark. Stars will burn no longer everything will become quiet.


Also expansion/repulsion of the universe, 'dark energy', multiple branes, ect.


Just the SCALE that space has is literally breathtaking.
It all fascinates me wickedly.

 

[Popadoo]

I love how speed and gravity effect how fast you travel through time.
We have to reset satellites every single day because, since they are further away from the Earth and hence less effected by gravity, their clocks become ahead of ours. And these are atomic clocks, precise to a fraction of a second for years and years.
If you were to be in a very deep gravity well -say, orbiting close to a black hole but not falling in- and then you came back to Earth, it'd be likely you'd be years, if not hundreds of years in the future, when to you it seemed like a few months, if that.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

This computer I am using right now is made from, and powered by, at least in a large part, by the remains of living things from dozens of millions of years ago.

I'd take that further and say you are made from, and powered by, at least in a large part, by the remains of living things from dozens of millions of years ago...

Now there's a thought...

Take it a step further - in a few billions of years from now nebulae, gas giants, asteroids and even extra-terrestrial life in distant parts of the galaxy will be made up (at least partly) by the stuff you can see around you right now.

 

[DRes82]

I love space.

Guilty! Of not being in space! Going to space jail.

I was watching a show on the science channel a couple days ago with a physicist who proposed that the entire universe was an unimaginably complex quantum computer running a similarly complex program. It was very compelling.

 

[DEAD34345]

Dark energy is pretty much a word for energy that we believe must exist, but we don't really know why or how or what it actually is. Basically, what I was taught is that we found out that the universe was expanding faster than we predicted, and that expansion seemed to be accelerating rather than slowing down over time like we expected it should. This would require incredible amounts of energy somewhere, hence someone thought up the name "dark energy" so that scientists could still sound cool when talking about energy that we think might be there but know nothing about.

[sub]This is all stuff I learned studying A-Level physics by the way, it's entirely possible that it's wrong. It wouldn't be the first time I've been taught things that turn out to be completely wrong when you move up to higher levels of study.[/sub]

Edit: As for what I find weird about the universe... everything. Seriously, you go beyond a certain point with physics and common sense just stops working, it's insane both on the small scale and on the large scale.