Comments on: It would take a 747 over a thousand years to circle the largest star

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:40:19 +0000

stopover at Heathrow = 250 extra years and your bags will be diverted to gatwick.

By: Knightly

Knightly — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:07:15 +0000

Is that with or without the stopover at Heathrow? 😀

By: HJ Hornbeck

HJ Hornbeck — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:05:24 +0000

Interestingly, by careful measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation, scientists have determined that we're moving, relative to it. This implies: a) the Big Bang was asymmetric, or b) we're in motion relative to the "starting location," as most people would define such things. HJ Hornbeck

By: billnut

billnut — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:51:30 +0000

That’s right MadScientist. We are at the center of the universe but that’s nothing special, everything is!

By: billnut

billnut — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:49:02 +0000

You make a good point MadScientist. We are at the center of the universe but that’s nothing special, everything is!

By: MadScientist

MadScientist — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 15:40:24 +0000

For me that suggests that nothing can orbit the largest star unless it has an orbital period of over 1000 years. For example, a 747 cruising at ~900km/h (well, typical cruise speed is lower than that – that’s closed to top speed) will take about 200 days to travel around at the surface of the sun. However, a 747 parked on the planet Mercury will travel around the sun in a mere 88 days (and you can even park it somewhere where it won’t be destroyed). For our own star, simulations suggest that planets could exist in a stable orbit much closer than Mercury, so if there were such a planet and the 747 were parked on that, it would make it around the sun even quicker.

As for the center of the universe – I thought we should be able to take any location as the center because it really doesn’t matter. No matter which direction we look we seem to see about the same amount of matter – how far we can see is limited by other factors and we can see far enough that we know odds are we will have no idea what lies beyond in any direction. But who knows – maybe one day someone will come up with a brilliant idea and find evidence to be able to say “the big bang originated from *that* direction”.