Riding light -- the enormity of space makes even light seem slow (45 min video)

Vimeo ^ | 1/25/15 | Alphonse Swinehart

[LibWhacker]

==> Click here <== to watch video.

Riding Light from Alphonse Swinehart Plus 6 days ago All Audiences

In our terrestrial view of things, the speed of light seems incredibly fast. But as soon as you view it against the vast distances of the universe, it's unfortunately very slow. This animation illustrates, in realtime, the journey of a photon of light emitted from the sun and traveling across a portion of the solar system.

I've taken liberties with certain things like the alignment of planets and asteroids, but overall I've kept the size and distances of all the objects as accurate as possible. I also decided to end the animation just past Jupiter as I wanted to keep the running length below an hour.

Music: Steve Reich "Music for 18 Musicians" Performed by: Eighth Blackbird eighthblackbird.org/

==> Click here <== to watch video.

[LibWhacker]

Completely ignores relativity. From the photon's perspective, it makes the journey to the other side of the universe instantaneously, never mind to Mercury, Venus and Earth. The video also ignores red shift. But... it's fun and illustrates just how enormous even tiny things, like solar systems, are in relation to all of space.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Just need to find some spice and fold space, man.

[Rodamala]

Dammit Scotty, we don’t have 45 minutes to get to Jupiter. WARP FACTOR 10!

[Deagle]

All of this seems too stupid or stupid for man as there must be things that us humans still don’t know. If the universe is so big, there must be ways to get to other places faster just not yet understood. All of this is so very interesting but as science continues to advance, I’d bet that many of the so called scientific theories today will be junked tomorrow.

There would not be places out of reach unless God has a great sense of humor. After all, we have now discovered so much that it would be a shame if we could not go farther and expore these worlds...and it would not make sense!

[Don W]

Your first sentence tells me you are young and eager. That’s good. There are areas of information where we are wholly ignorant. That’s what it’s all about!

It’s not stupidity, it’s a lack of knowledge. We learn all kinds of things (most is quite esoteric) every single day, but only those who are researching it or know those doing so get the information, until they release it to the world. That’s how it works.

Relax, FRiend. We humans have only been around for a few thousand years.

Considering that we travelled only by foot for the VAST majority of that time, and only in the last hundred years got into the air, closely followed by near-earth space, we are doing just fine!

That we are unlikely to visit the stars in your or my lifetime is no reason to throw a hissy-fit.

We’ll get there, or not.

Yes, G_d has a sense of humor.

[Don W]

OK, after looking at your homepage, you’re not quite so young as I assumed (yeah, I know the drill).

Nevertheless, perspective and objectivity are our FRiends.

Humanity has been self-aware for a very short time. We have built on the knowledge of all previous generations to get where we are. We will continue to do so, and the stars are our goal.

We’ll get there. Not in the immediate future, but it WILL come.

[Deagle]

As an almost 70 year old aging fast, and probably a bit senile, I thank you for your comments. Made my day!

[outofsalt]

pfl

[beef]

ping for later

[ctdonath2]

A perhaps sobering thought on the speed of light:

In the time it takes for light from this screen (the one you are looking at _right_now_) to reach your eyes, the computer you’re using has already carried out 6 instructions.

[Dogbert41]

Light is slowing down...used to be very fast.

[ctdonath2]

Not stupid. Relative to what we can confidently know about the universe (not even bothering with what we don’t know), we just live too short a time to get anywhere meaningful. “Relativity” is our best hope, yet requires enormous energy to achieve - “enormous” as in: on the scale of mankind’s total energy usage for a year. Sure, we’ll learn things to improve our travel abilities ... but be ready for the reality that the universe is much, much larger than our puny brains can comprehend.

Makes perfect sense to me. I’ve travelled, and looked at the stars.

[Deagle]

Heh, compared to the knowledge we still do NOT have, I’d still say that we are stupid...heh.

Yes, I like the Relative statement and I agree that we know what we know now and it is such a small part of tomorrow’s knowledge - and probably many things are wrong! We all wish that we could live to see tomorrow’s future but alas, not to be. I guess that at my age that I just wish that I could be around to see the progress. Some here will and I am jealous.

Sure would love to see into the future though... I suspect that so many things considered impossible today will change.

Oh, and Relativity (as learned) may just be a speck into the possibilities of the future. Man can be a bit slow when it comes to understanding and using practical science.

[Tucker39]

IMHO, that all happens in the NEXT life, IF you know the Lord. Yes, the speed of light is far too slow. In the next life we’ll travel at the speed of THOUGHT; In our glorified bodies just like Christ had when He walked out of the tomb on that first Easter Morning.

Unless Heaven is in another dimension, it is far away from Earth. I think mankind has detected planets as far out as approximately 15+ billion light years away.

On that first Easter, Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden but wouldn’t allow her to touch Him, because “I have not yet ascended to the Father.” A few hours later He had been there and presented his blood upon the Mercy Seat in Heaven, made the return trip to Earth and walked with Mr. & Mrs. Cleopas to their home in Emmaus where He revealed His identity to them before disappearing again.

The Cleopases, upon realizing that they’d just walked, talked and dined with the risen Lord, immediately hoofed it back to Jerusalem to tell the 10 apostles and others about it. (My namesake, Thomas was absent). While they were telling their story, the risen Christ appeared in their midst and showed his wounds, assuring them that He truly had risen as He had foretold.

Bottom line: Christ went to Heaven and back very quickly. IMHO that is only possible if one travels at the speed of thought.

[Deagle]

Well not exactly scientific, but okay. I do understand the religious part and might be true. If it happens in the next life, I hope that I can get those answers but the answers don’t seem to be forthcoming during my lifetime anyway.

[mindburglar]

enormity ɪˈnɔːmɪti/ noun 1. the great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something perceived as bad or morally wrong. "a thorough search disclosed the full enormity of the crime" (in neutral use) large size or scale. "I began to get a sense of the enormity of the task" synonyms: immensity, vastness, massiveness, hugeness; More 2. a grave crime or sin. "the enormities of war" synonyms: wickedness, evilness, vileness, baseness, blackness, depravity; More antonyms: goodness

[Tucker39]

1st Corinthians 2:9
For it is written; Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LibWhacker, extra to APoD and X-Planets.

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[cripplecreek]

Almost 9 hours round trip for communications with the New Horizons spacecraft as it nears Pluto.

[MrB]

“Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”