Holy SHI_

[MacM]

We are currently and have been for some time in collision (striping stars from) with another galaxy only 25,000 ly from our solar system!.


http://www.universetoday.com/am/publ...iscovered.html

[gendanken]

We are currently and have been for some time in collision (striping stars from) with another galaxy only 25,000 ly from our solar system!.

Holy mother not only 25, 000 light years?! Not some (calculate real quick .......tinker tinker tick tick tack.......150, 000,000,000,000 miles?!! That's right around the corner.Time.To.Panic.

Kidding.

Nice link. It seems the galaxy is named Canis Major. The cool thing about this is that it proves our galaxy is still young and active and Canis Major is one of the puny galaxies- only some billions of suns full. We're slurping it up like spaghetti.

Let's call it galactophagia.

If this is bad news than at least we have some goodies to look forward to- a robotic mission set to launch to Pluto (finally) in 3 years and land there 9 years later. Strange psudo-planet.

And of course there's Mars. Then there's the promise of another mission to detect habitable earth like planets near other stars- think we've got 20 so far (20! and an oddity of a Jupiter-like planet as close to its star as the earth is to our sun), but we'll have to wait for that one. Wait wait wait wait.......that's all NASA knows how to do other than rush to blow up their space vehicles over Texas. Pity.

By the way, the Hubble is dying on us. The same year we go out to look for these planets is the same year Hubble retires. Enjoy her while she lasts.

Cheap FYI
- there's an active supermassive blackhole in the very middle of our galaxy.

- I had a poem titled "Canis Major" dedicated to me once. Pig.

[tempusme]

I hope the Milky Way got permission from the United Galaxies in its unilateral capturing of other galaxies.

[gendanken]

There's nowhere in the legislature that states one needs permission to pick on a dwarf.

[curioucity]

lol^_^lol

Hmmm...... if it's true that our present galaxy is larger than it was, what can occur in the future? Galaxy shrinking because of mass?
Also, about the 'collision', as long as it's not heading right towards our lovely system, get panic first. When it REALLY head towards our puny sun first, pray....

[gendanken]

Curiocity:

lol^_^lol

You laugh at the 'galactophagia' reference of course. Had me giggling too.

Hmmm...... if it's true that our present galaxy is larger than it was, what can occur in the future? Galaxy shrinking because of mass

Probably. And if its to be anything like the theory we have going about the universe breaching crititcal mass then we are set to shrink, expand, shrink, expand, shrink, expand, shrink, expand, shrink, expand like a yo-yo.

Talk about proverbial vertigo.

Also, about the 'collision', as long as it's not heading right towards our lovely system, get panic first. When it REALLY head towards our puny sun first, pray....

Uhm...dude, I think you missed somethng here. We're already gobbling up the little galaxy.


http://www.universetoday.com/am/pub...discovered.html

[cosmictraveler]

Here's the next great telescope that will perhaps be built soon.

http://www.eso.org/projects/owl/


http://www.howstuffworks.com/news-item160.htm

In order to explore the nature and origins of the universe further, scientists are developing larger and larger telescopes. A team of California scientists is planning to build such a giant telescope, which they hope will be the world's largest. The design for the new telescope includes a primary mirror three times wider than the mirrors of the current largest telescope. A German team plans to create an even larger telescope, however, which will probably be finished soon after the California team's project.

Today, the largest telescopes are the Keck Telescopes in Hawaii. Their 10-meter (32.8 feet) mirrors can gather even the extremely faint light of distant galaxies, but they will seem tiny compared to the 30-meter (98.4 feet) diameter mirror in the telescope being developed by the University of California at Santa Cruz and the California Institute of Technology. The California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT) is still in the early planning stage, but astronomers hope to finish construction within the next 10 to 15 years. The project will cost around $500 million, and it's not yet clear where the funding will come from, said Joseph Miller, director of UC Observatories/Lick Observatory (UCO/Lick), which is funding the design studies.

Another telescope in development should dwarf the CELT. The aptly named Overwhelmingly Large (OWL) telescope will have a primary mirror with a diameter of 100 meters (328 feet). The OWL, a project of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), based in Germany, could be fully operational within 18 years.

The CELT will be constructed using some of the same technology used to build the Keck telescopes, said Terry Mast, a research physicist at UCO/Lick. For example, the CELT will have the same segmented primary mirror as the Kecks, one made of many small, hexagonal mirrors arranged in a honeycomb pattern. The CELT will have 1,080 segments, a considerable increase over the Kecks' 36 segments. The size of telescopes using this segmented-mirror design is limited only by the expense of construction.

A key component in the telescope will be an adaptive optics system to correct for the blurring effects of the atmosphere. Using precise measurements of the atmospheric distortion, a deformable mirror changes shape to correct for the distortion.

These large telescopes will be used to explore the most distant galaxies and perform detailed studies of deep space not yet seen. They will also allow scientists to effectively look back in time to see how galaxies evolved from their birth to today, a span of 10 billion years, said Michael Bolte, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.

"Who knows what we're going to discover?" said Bolte. "Previous experience with major advances in telescopes suggests that many of the most exciting new discoveries will be in unanticipated areas."


Check out these related links!


100-Meter OWL Telescope Concept
California Extremely Large Telescope
Keck Observatory
Inflatable Space Telescope to Best Hubble
Is it possible to see (with a telescope) the stuff left behind on the moon by the Apollo astronauts?
Optical Device Enables Superhuman Vision

[curioucity]

gendaken,
Thanks for your comment on teh smiley.... he he he.
Now, a bit seriee, I suddenly wonder if Big Bang theory were true, might it happen that mini-BigBangs occur as well? I interpret your info this way: the galaxy gain lots of mass until the gravity forces it to shrink to such critical point that it blasts. Comments?
And by the way, so I mis-interpret the info about the devour...

cosmic,
Thanks for the info. Now let's get hopeful!

[Xevious]

As president of the Planet Neptune, I condemn the unilateral attack of the Milky Way upon the Galaxy of Canis Major!! I demand that a peacekeeping force be sent immidietly to stop the Milky Way population for settling in clearly Canis Major terrotories and stop Canis suicide stars from causing gravitational disruptions in the Milky Way! We must defust this situation before anything happens to the distant Sol system!

[curioucity]

Uh, read <a href="http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=473421#post473421" target="_blank">this thread</a> before you propose that to United Universe Magistrate........

[Xevious]

I think you took me too seriously

[curioucity]

who said I took it seriously? Oh, if directing you to a thread seems to be serious, I apologize.