[LibWhacker]

. . . 200 light-years in diameter, a distance that would take a supersonic fighter jet about 90 billion years to cross. . .

Ummmm . . . no. If I haven't made a mistake, a supersonic fighter flying at 700 mph would cover more than 100,000 ly in 90 billion years. Otherwise, interesting article.

[Senator Pardek]

THanks for crunching the #s. Even dumb ol' Pardek knew that was wrong right away!

[steve-b]

Yep, that's about right:

700 mi/hr * 1 hr / 3600 sec = 0.2 mi/sec

90*10^9 yr * 31.5*10^6 sec / 1 yr = 2.84*10^18 sec

2.84*10^18 sec * 0.2 mi/sec = 0.57*10^18 mi

0.57*10^18 mi * 1 LY / 5.87*10^12 mi = 10^5 LY.

[SBeck]

Not that it matters:

I lopped off a bunch of significant figures so this value is an approximation.