The Known Universe - A Neat Video!

[PMedMoe]

This was today's Astronomy Picture of the Day from the Nasa website.

The Known Universe

What would it look like to travel across the known universe? To help humanity visualize this, the American Museum of Natural History has produced a modern movie featuring many visual highlights of such a trip. The video starts in Earth's Himalayan Mountains and then dramatically zooms out, showing the orbits of Earth's satellites, the Sun, the Solar System, the extent of humanities first radio signals, the Milky Way Galaxy, galaxies nearby, distant galaxies, and quasars. As the distant surface of the microwave background is finally reached, radiation is depicted that was emitted billions of light years away and less than one million years after the Big Bang. Frequently using the Digital Universe Atlas, every object in the video has been rendered to scale given the best scientific research in 2009, when the video was produced.

Really neat!!!

 

[Journeyman]

You are such a geek!    ;D

 

[PMedMoe]

You are such a geek!    ;D

I found this because I use the pictures as desktop wallpaper at work.  :-\

 

[Antoine]

More Astronomy Pictures can be found at www.nature.com/news/specials/hubble/slideshow.html

More neat stuffs at

Hubble Space Telescope's 20th Anniversary

www.nature.com/news/specials/hubble/index.html

On 24 April 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into a low Earth orbit. Now, 20 years on, Hubble continues to produce stunning images of the Solar System and the farthest reaches of the Universe. In this special, Nature presents a retrospective, a slideshow and some archive stories about the iconic telescope.
Happy Birthday Hubble!

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Space sure is big.

 

[Antoine]

Big Fuzz in the news about Hawking Discovery Chanel's show:

Hawking: Aliens may pose risks to Earth

www.discoverychannel.ca/article.aspx?aid=26058

Into The Universe
Igniting an international media frenzy, world-renowned theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking makes some incredible claims - ones that redefine our view of life and our place in the universe - in the captivating new documentary Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking. Could alien life be found on distant planets? Is time travelling the exclusive domain of science fiction - or is it possible?
Delve into the mind of the world's most famous living scientist and explore the splendour and majesty of the universe as never seen before when Discovery Channel presents the Canadian Broadcast Premiere of Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking on Sunday, May 30 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT. In a special two-part broadcast event that will bend the mind, stretch the imagination and unleash the wonder of our universe, consider the possibility of intelligent alien life and time travel as brilliantly imagined by Hawking.
Cutting-edge effects, digitally enhanced NASA footage and live action combine to bring Hawking's extraordinary vision of the universe to the screen for the first time. Definitive, provocative, surprising and exquisitely beautiful, Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking is a fascinating look through the mind's eye of one of the finest brains on the planet.
Premiering at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT, the first hour of Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking asks the compelling question: Are we alone? Or could extraterrestrial life be found on distant planets? Yes, says Hawking, "to my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly ratio
nal."
The episode titled "Aliens" travels from the moons of Jupiter to a galaxy perhaps not so far, far away in search of intelligent life and poses the question of what it means to be "alive." Hawking introduces possible alien life forms - in stunning CGI - that face the same universal trials of adaptation and survival as the residents of Earth. Hawking calculates the odds of making "contact" - although he cautions against it: "Like us, they probably would have evolved from a species used to exploiting whatever it can...if aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America. Which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans."
Then, at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT, Hawking explores one of the world's favourite scientific queries: Is time travel possible? In "Time Travel" Hawking theorizes warping the very fabric of time and space. From killing your grandfather to riding a black hole, learn the pitfalls and the prospects for a technology that could - quite literally - change everything.

From CBC news, Monday, April 26, 2010:

www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/04/26/tech-hawking-aliens.html

Aliens may pose risks, says Hawking
British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says aliens are out there, but it could be too dangerous for humans to interact with extraterrestrial life. Hawking claims in a new documentary that intelligent alien life forms almost certainly exist, but warned that communicating with them could be "too risky." The 68-year-old scientist said a visit by extraterrestrials to Earth would be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas, "which didn't turn out very well for the native Americans." He speculates most extraterrestrial life will be similar to microbes, or small animals — but adds advanced lifeforms may be "nomads, looking to conquer and colonize."The Discovery Channel said Sunday it will broadcast Stephen Hawking's Universe in Britain next month.

More info at CNN, MSNBC,....

 

[spear]

It's unlimited space.  Beautiful.  :nod:

 

[Antoine]

Sorry for the necroposting but as a follow-up of this thread, I am watching the Stephen Hawking series:

Into the universe with Stephen Hawking on Discovery Channel.

It is well done.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/stephen-hawking/

 

[PMedMoe]

Instead of starting a new thread, I'm necroposting here.  ;D

Another video from Astonomy Picture of the Day:  Around the World in 90 Minutes (note: video is only 5 minutes long).

What is it like to circle the Earth? Every 90 minutes, astronauts aboard the International Space Station experience just that. Recently, crew members took a series of light-sensitive videos looking down at night that have been digitally fused to produce the above time-lapse video. Many wonders of the land and sky are visible in the eighteen sequences, including red aurora above green aurora, lights from many major cities, and stars in the background. Looming at the top of the frame is usually part of the space station itself, sometimes seen re-orienting solar panels.

 

[eurowing]

APOD is a site I visit daily!  Highly recommended.

 

[Tuna]

quite interesting indeed

 

[a_majoor]

Oldie but goody: The Powers of Ten

 

[GnyHwy]

Oldie but goody: The Powers of Ten

That's a cool vid.  I love all those space documentaries.

Here's another short one that shows our sun compared to the largest star we know of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4iD-9GSW-0&feature=related

 

[PMedMoe]

Reviving this thread again, here's an "modern" version of the Powers of Ten:  The Scale of the Universe - Interactive

Note:  It uses flash animation.  Pretty neat.