Herschel space telescope pierces giant star bubble

BBC News ^ | 5/6/10 | Jonathan Amos

[NormsRevenge]

The galactic bubble known as RCW 120 lies some 4,300 light-years from Earth

[Genoa]

Worst case of gas I've ever seen.

[Paine in the Neck]

[NormsRevenge]

ESA Portal
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html

[NCC-1701]

“...some 4,300 light-years from Earth...”

I drive a 2003 Ford Taurus. At 70 mph, how long would it take to get to that bubble? And how many fill-ups would it take?

[JoeProBono]

Star formation around RCW 120, the perfect bubble

[Wally_Kalbacken]

You’d want a seat cushion for a trip that long.

[Rennes Templar]

“And how many fill-ups would it take?”

Around the same number we use to describe the debt Zero has foisted on us.

[dfwgator]

[C19fan]

Cool!!! This telescope looks in the infrared spectrum hence its name.

[C19fan]

Wait till this star supernovas!!

[NativeSon]

what is interesting when you think about it that this image is a look back in time some 4,300 years ago.

to know what the star's current state is and compare would be neat

[shadeaud]

Reminds me of both Katie Couric’s and Al Roper’s trip up the muddy river

[excalibur1701]

It appears that the bubble burst at the top of the second picture. I wonder if they have SUV’s on RCW-120?

[thulldud]

You’d want a seat cushion for a trip that long.

And a "flight extender". Or a case of Depends™.

[rjsimmon]

I drive a 2003 Ford Taurus. At 70 mph, how long would it take to get to that bubble? And how many fill-ups would it take?

Just one. Floor it until you reach 70 and coast the rest of the way. Radio reception will get poor past the Moon's orbit, though, unless you have XM.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Some detail on the Herschel:

'Silver sensation' seeks cold cosmos

[McCloud-Strife]

Light travels at 186000 miles a second
thats 111,600,000 miles a minute
thats 669,600,000 miles an hour
thats 16,070,400,000 miles a day
thats 5,865,696,000,000 miles a year
meaning that it's 2,522,249,280,000,000,000,000,000 (septillion) miles to the bubble

70 miles an hour is...
613,200 miles a year
Your 2003 Taurus according to the EPA gets 26 MPG highway
Your gas tank is 18 gallons
which means you can get roughly 468 Miles on a tank of gas
That's 1310 gas stops per year

So, 2,522,249,280,000,000,000,000,000 (septillion) miles divided by 613,200 miles is how many years it will take. Multiply that number by 1310 to find out how many pit stops it will take.

4,113,257,142,857,142,857 years (quintillion) I think and 5,388,366,857,142,857,142,857 (sextillion) fill ups at the pump, I believe.

For reference, according to what science can guess the universe is about 13,730,000,000 (billion) years old. So, roughly if you take 299,581,729 (million) times the age of universe, that is how long it will take your Taurus to get to that bubble.

And oddly enough our debt will be $4,113,257,142,857,142,857 in 2020 or it seems like it anyway.
Hope that info is helpful.

[NCC-1701]

Thanks for running the numbers. Looks like I’ll get a tune-up before I leave. Anything to stretch the gas mileage. :-)