Comments on: Milk Bar

By: The Milky Way, Defined at Moonage SpaceDream

The Milky Way, Defined at Moonage SpaceDream — Sat, 12 May 2007 03:13:05 +0000

[…] better descriptions and discussion can be found at the Bad Astronomy Blog. Technorati Tags: milky way, The […]

By: freeza

freeza — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 06:39:16 +0000

how do we know what out galaxy looks like from within it? just wondering.

By: suitti

suitti — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:46:15 +0000

If we could only just get â€œsomeoneâ€? from the Andromeda Galaxy to send us a tight laser-beamed digital CCD of the Milky Way!

Let’s say we discover clear signals from ET in M31 today, perhaps via optical laser. Let’s say that we transmit the question right away. Let’s say they get it, figure out what it means,
and send us an image right away. Its going to take 2,250,000 years to get the request there, and another 2,250,000 years to get the answer. So, in 4,500,000 years we’ll get an image that’s 2,250,000 years old. I’d like to be around for the answer. Really, i’ll wait.

Still, the new image would make a better T shirt - You are here.

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 21:13:32 +0000

It’s amazing, isn’t it? We can view hundreds of galaxies in one image at about a billion or so parsecs away (e.g. the Hubble Deep Field), yet we are still discovering things about the basic structure of our own galaxy. These things are only 30,000 light years away.

Doesn’t sound like much, when you say it like that, does it? I think it’s around 176 quadrillion miles from here to the galactic centre. Taxi!

Anyway, make mine a single-malt scotch. Something western, but not too vigorous. Say, a 12-year-old Bunnahabhain. Straight up. No ice.

By: Oscar

Oscar — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 17:51:40 +0000

Too bad that guy turned out to be a fraud… I never heard of his name
before.. but then again, I thought that the question of whether gravity
was instantaneous or delayed wasn’t one open for debate as I would
think that it shouldn’t be too hard to calculate if you knew the location
and motion of the objects around you, the amount of redshift, the
earth’s momentum, etc.. surely the answer should be known by now,
or at least one of the possibilities been plausibly ruled out…

By: Irishman

Irishman — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 14:40:03 +0000

BB, please elaborate on where your understanding of projected gravitation derives. It does not jive with my understanding of General Relativity.

By: neutron

neutron — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 00:03:34 +0000

This very article in the JPL website prompted me in my blog to rejoice that we now have somewhere to go for a post-prandial drink after we have eaten in the “Restaurant at the End of the Universe”!
You are doing a great job, Phil, it seems we need every skeptic we can find at the moment.