21 Replies to “A space joke”

  1. Beats me, too. I guess I haven’t grasped the Gravity of the situation. Gee, ellinidata, you must find that a crushing experience. Perhaps you should expand your Horizon with a new Event!I get a Big Bang out of making Space Puns. They are Universe – al! Mind you, there’s always a chance I’ll get Mooned! When that happens, I always Ring my buddy, Saturna.

  2. You didn’t know that, Chas? That’s why they are called “Black Holes!” They are normally formed by the collapsing remnants of a Super Nova, which draw closer and closer together, creating ever greater gravitational fields, until thy literally become about the size of a football, the astronomers figure, but weigh more than several regular stars put together. The gravity is so strong that not even light can escape, thus they are “black.” We will never “see” a black hole, but can only look for their presence by observing what’s happening around them. Around them, there is an “Event Horizon”, as they call it. If a ship, say, passes through the event horizon, that’s it. Bye bye. No escape. It is now part of the black hole.It’s now believed that every galaxy has a black hole at the center of it, basically holding the Galaxy together. It seems that the average planet Earth is part of an average planetary system, in an average spiral galaxy, the Milky Way, with an average black hole at its center. And when the end comes, will our sun become a spectacular Super Nova seen by everybody right across the galaxy? Nope. Just an average Nova, which will turn over time into an average Blue Dwarf! I’m so sick of being so average!There have already been millions of stars which have ended in a Nova or Super Nova. (There are still “Stellar Nurseries” too.) I sometimes wonder how many Great Civilizations have existed on various planets that are no more. Hundreds, thousands? All that effort, and Poof! Nothing! Bearing that in mind, was it really “important” to attack Iraq? Since our time on this spinning rock is limited anyway, why can’t we learn to get along, and at least enjoy it. We will all get instantly vapourized at the same time anyway, so what’s the point? If we don’t instantly vapourize each other first, that is.Space Joke from the Toronto Planetarium. An astronomer was taling to the folks about the birth, life, and death cycle of stars. He stated at one point that our star is due to Nova in about 5 billion years. After the lecture, he was answering questions while seated at a table in the hall. This little old lady came up and said in a quavering voice, “How long did you say our sun has, sonnie?” “Five billion years,” he replied.The lady drew herself up looking relieved, and said, “Oh! Thank God! I thought you had said five million years!” (True story, by the say.)

  3. I took one course in Astronomy when I was in first year university. Fascinating stuff. Wow! But that was likely way before most of you were born, so I have forgotten more than I knew. And back then, there were no radio arrays, Hubble, etc. Now? Holy shit!The scale of it all is mind-boggling. The astrnomers now believe that the average galaxy (like ours, of course :irked:) has about 100 billion stars, and that the number of galaxies is also measured in the billions! They have even spotted Galactic Clusters, containing maybe 150 Galaxies, all spinning about a central spot.! (A super-dooper Black Hole?)Yet among all these countless trillions of stars, there’s only one planet with intelligent (?) life on it? Right! Gimme a break! 😆

  4. Oh. I forgot. While you’re there, click on Space in the right hand panel. There’s a neat video there too regarding the Hubble and a Spacey Mess left behind froma Super Nova called the “Veiled Nebula.”

  5. Einstein Lens:Those five stars are actually one. It is believed that there is a Black Hole between the star and us, and the light from the star is being bent by the gravitational field of the BH. That’s why we see what looks like 5 stars.

  6. Why thank you. :yes:But did you notice that the Music is all Classical, pretty well? :sing:So here’s an ad! :cheers:My World of Beauty!However, the Site is still a long way from being re-done and FTP’d to my new Host!

  7. We, your Faithful Webmeisters and Jedi Knights extraordinaires, who believe in Truth, Beauty, Justice, and Ballerinas, hereby welcome you to My World of Beauty’s Great Music Pages.lol:up:

  8. I should have issued a warning. The Site is far and away from being finished and FTP’d to my new host. I have popups that tell you what is ready. Make sure you read them, or you’ll get 404’s! :insane:

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