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.

[cripplecreek]

Baby steps.

We won’t be leaving our solar system for a great while yet but I think we’ll find a way eventually. In the mean time we still have plenty to learn in our own solar system. Lets get a manned trip to Mars down to a few weeks.

[exPBRrat]

..another clever shake down.

[Skooz]

bfl

[freedomlover]

“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.”

---

Unless you are running UNIX . . . ;)

/thread hijack

[zeugma]

When you consider the distances involved even within the relatively small confines of our solar system, light is a slowpoke. I've written about it several times here on FR. The best program I've found for 'exploring' the solar system is Celestia (available for free download for Mac, Linux and Windows).

If you 'limit' yourself to travelling at the speed of light, it takes a long time to tour the Solar System.

[zeugma]

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.

Or more. Depending on clock speed and the number of cores.

We've already reached the point where the speed it takes for electrons to travel across a CPU (which is close to light speed), is a limiting factor for how big the CPU can be, given the clock speeds they run at.

[zeugma]

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

15 hours 35 minute to Voyager 1. Round trip is over 30 hours. It's amazing that we can communicate with this spacecraft at all considering it has a whopping 1-watt transmitter.

[cripplecreek]

The time will get a little shorter for communications soon as the earth makes a turn around the sun and starts to catch up to New Horizons for a while.

We’re haulin ass.

[cripplecreek]

Light speed with an earth to moon reference.

[ctdonath2]

Quite. At 3GHz, electrons can only move 3 inches per clock cycle. 1GHz => 1ns cycle => 1 light-foot. Hence the need to put more “cores” (i.e.: computer brains) in the box.

[LibWhacker]

enormity

enor·mi·ty
noun \i-ˈnȯr-mə-tē\

: a shocking, evil, or immoral act

: great evil or wickedness

: great size
plural enor·mi·ties
Full Definition of ENORMITY
1
:  an outrageous, improper, vicious, or immoral act  
2
:  the quality or state of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous; especially :  great wickedness 
3
:  the quality or state of being huge :  immensity 
4
:  a quality of momentous importance or impact 
See enormity defined for English-language learners »
See enormity defined for kids »
Usage Discussion of ENORMITY
Enormity, some people insist, is improperly used to denote large size. They insist on enormousness for this meaning, and would limit enormity to the meaning “great wickedness.” 
Those who urge such a limitation may not recognize the subtlety with which enormity is actually used. It regularly denotes a considerable departure from the expected or normal .
When used to denote large size, either literal or figurative, it usually suggests something so large as to seem overwhelming and may even be used to suggest both great size 
and deviation from morality . It can also emphasize the momentousness of what has happened  or of its consequences .
One goose, two geese. One moose,
two... moose. What's up with that? »
Examples of ENORMITY

    We were shocked at the enormity of the crime.
    They didn't fully grasp the enormity of their decision.

First Known Use of ENORMITY
15th century
Related to ENORMITY

Synonyms
    atrociousness, atrocity, badness, depravedness, depravity, diabolicalness, evilness, heinousness, hideousness, monstrosity, sinfulness, vileness, wickedness

Antonyms
    goodness, righteousness, virtuousness

[+]more
Rhymes with ENORMITY
conformity, deformity
Learn More About ENORMITY
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for "enormity"
Spanish Central: Spanish translation of "enormity"
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Next Word in the Dictionary: enormous
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[LibWhacker]

Celestia is good, but I've grown tired of it over the years. I was finally able to download and get Space Engine working last year. I haven't done a whole lot with it yet, but it seems much more capable. Have you tried it?

Here's a YouTube intro (there are a lot of SE intros over there on YT if you can't stand this guy). I believe all the known objects in the Universe are included in the "game," and the rest of Space Engine's "universe" is "procedurally generated" in a way that's consistent with the laws of physics, and you can visit any of the objects, land on them, look around, etc.

[zeugma]

I’ll check out Space Engine. One of the really cool features I like are the add-ons you can get at celestia motherload. I have a bunch of the models (ringworld is one of my favs) and higher resolution textures. Some of those addons, like the spacedock that contains 8 or so starships from the Star Trek universe inside it, is tangible proof that some nerds have too much time on their hands. Speaking of which, have you found the gnome in the spacedock?

[zeugma]

Crap. Looks like SE is windows only. That’s something I don’t allow in my household. (I’m a unix geek).
I’ll see if I can make it work in Wine.

[LibWhacker]

Wow, I had no idea those things existed, which may explain why I got so bored with it; I’ve only ever used it as it came “out of the box.”

[zeugma]

LOL. The detail included in some of those models is worth it all my themselves. You can actually go inside the spacedock, which contains a bunch of star-trek ships, which is an astounding bit of geekery. Like I said, there’s also a gnome hidden in that model, but it’s hard to find.