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Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a dist
by rb808 7y ago
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
- journalctl 7y agoWouldn’t it be wondrous if the galaxy had plentiful intragalactic public transit and we don’t have access because we’re the planetary equivalent of the suburbs?
- TheRealSteel 7y agoThis is kind of a plot element in Mass Effect, but the humans are lucky enough to have a stop in our system.
- duncan-donuts 7y agoWhat do you mean the humans are lucky enough to have a stop in _our_ system?!
- paulsen 7y agoI think the Reapers may have arrived 167 years too early. Come on giant space Cthulhus, we haven't even discovered the Prothean Ruins in Mars yet!
- antisemiotic 7y agoDid New Horizons categorically rule out that there's something hidded inside Charon?
- undersuit 7y agoWe just need to build a station in the neighborhood: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613127/a-halo-drive-could-accelerate-interstellar-spacecraft-to-close-to-the-speed-of-light/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613127/a-halo-drive-could...
- trhway 7y agomy pet theory is that galaxies are more like fireworks wheels, and so we aren't strictly orbiting the galactic center, we're also slowly getting farther and farther from it (that also takes care of the dark matter conundrum in my view), and thus couple billions of years ago we were in the much better and more populated part of the town than the current 'burbs.
- Vesuvium 7y agoYou are not very far from what could be the reality. According to some research the Solar System has 10% less hydrogen than other galaxies, so Bussard ramjets will have an harder time
- perl4ever 7y agoWhat if dark matter turns out the key to a decent space drive? There appear to be galaxies without it (a good reason for believing it exists where there is evidence) and so any aliens there would be SOL.
- rolleiflex 7y agoAstonishingly enough, you might not be far off. That is the operating principle behind the Alcubierre Drive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive Edit: Apologies, it seems it does not in fact use dark matter.
- paulrouget 7y agoThe Alcubierre drive relies on negative matter, not dark matter.
- archgoon 7y agoUnfortunately, Alcubierre doesn't use dark matter. It uses negative mass (or even imaginary mass) matter. Dark Matter is believed to have regular positive mass (if it were negative mass, we'd be wondering why galaxies seemed to have less matter than they should). The existence of negative mass exotic matter remains an open question.
- BurningFrog 7y agoNo doubt stolen by the untrustworthy Andromedites!
- antod 7y agoAll the planning charts and demolition orders for it have been on display in the local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty Earth years
- pdonis 7y ago...in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door...
- sjwright 7y agoWhat do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh for heaven sake mankind it’s only four light years away! I’m sorry but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs that’s your own regard.
- journalctl 7y agoIt’s just going to be a bunch of NIMLICs at the meeting anyway (Not In My Local Interstellar Cloud).
- burpsnard 7y ago'beware of the leopard'.
- everdev 7y agoOr the wilderness
- ars 7y agoIt's unlikely. Closer to the core there is too much radiation for life to be possible. And farther away there are not enough metals. As best as we can tell we are at the distance where all other life would be.
- AtlasBarfed 7y agoSuburbs intentionally avoid mass transit. You are thinking of... a ghetto.
- saghm 7y agoThis is probably a really silly question, but how do astronomers and the like define "west" in this case? I assume it must be useful to have some sort of reference orientation for the galaxy, but how is it defined?
- ianburrell 7y agoThe directions are defined the same way as directions on the Earth or in the solar system using the right-hand rule to define north and east based on counter-clockwise rotation.
- saghm 7y agoAh, I forgot that the galaxy rotates as well. That definitely makes things a bit simpler.
- close04 7y agoIt's a quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Only hit me at the very end of it... "digital watches are a pretty neat idea".
- spolster 7y agoWest can be defined in terms of spin direction, but western ( as in hemisphere) requires a meridian to define the boundary. I'd have assumed that we'd have put Earth on the galactic meridian, much like the Brits put London on the terrestrial one.
- BurningFrog 7y agoI expect it goes through Greenwich, as always!
- hanniabu 7y agoOkay, so once you have north, which way is east in a circle?
- nerfhammer 7y agodigital watches are a pretty neat idea. they're vastly more accurate than mechanical watches while using incredibly little energy.
- jgtrosh 7y agoJust bought a Casio digital watch this morning because it has a countdown timer you can adjust up and down. I'm a happy ape right now.
- emmelaich 7y agoAlso the Galaxy song is funny and mostly accurate http://www.montypython.net/scripts/galaxy.php http://www.montypython.net/scripts/galaxy.php
- SmellyGeekBoy 7y agoIt makes me sad how many of the replies here seem to have completely missed the reference. The fact that it's upvoted to the top gives me some hope, at least.