6 ms·
Does 3.5M years ago count as “not long ago” in astronomy time scales?
by a_t48 7y ago
Does 3.5M years ago count as “not long ago” in astronomy time scales?
- quickthrower2 7y agoAccording to the article, yes.
- Aardwolf 7y agoI would say so, it's even short on Earth time scale.
- saalweachter 7y agoWhenever timespans like this come up, it always reminds me of the opening from Now and Then, Here and There: Because ten billion years’ time is so fragile, so ephemeral… it arouses such as a bittersweet, almost heartbreaking fondness.
- atoav 7y agoI think 3.5M years aren’t even that long ago in geological time scales.
- kozak 7y agoAccording to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_evolutionary_history_of_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_evolutionary_h..., that's when "Blue whales grew to their modern sizes". So it's fairly recent not just in astronomy scales.
- rbanffy 7y agoIn cosmological terms, it's more like "earlier today". Our ancestors were already walking around, talking to black monoliths and crushing skulls by then.
- ifdefdebug 7y agoI hate that movie.
- rbanffy 7y agoI'm sorry about that. I love it. :-)
- unnouinceput 7y agoWhich movie?
- alexgmcm 7y ago2001: A Space Odyssey.
- jes5199 7y ago“2001, a space odyssey”. post above is making a reference to the opening scene
- mellosouls 7y ago2001, specifically https://youtu.be/ypEaGQb6dJk https://youtu.be/ypEaGQb6dJk
- aswanson 7y agoI've never seen it.
- jacobush 7y agoYou should get that fixed.
- 725686 7y agoForget the movie. I didn't like it either. Read the book. It's fantastic.
- narag 7y ago
- dredmorbius 7y agoThe Krell, on the other hand, were near the peak of their development.
- rbanffy 7y agoTheir Great Machine is a metaphor for social networking. I'm quite sure it'll kill us all.
- dredmorbius 7y agoI say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
- hanoz 7y agoIt's very nearly 3.5 days in terms of a middle aged person's lifetime, which is an interesting rule of thumb I think I've just discovered.
- lifeisstillgood 7y agoso ... wild guess 37 years * 365 days = 13,500 days universe has existed for 13.5 billion years So each day in a middle aged life is 1 million of the universe's years. I like it ! :-) * This flare: Last Friday * Dinosaur extinction: 3rd of August * Pangea breaks apart: about Valentines day * Earth formed: June 2007 * Universe Born: 1982 Of course this means the Universe would have listened to Flock Of Seagulls as a kid, and loved Knight Rider.
- Intermernet 7y agoDammit, I'm older than the universe. There's a happy thought.
- dredmorbius 7y ago"When I was born, time didn't exist." https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2b4kpg/conspiracy_and_an_offbyone_error/cj2qoom/?context=4 https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2b4kpg/conspir...
- dandare 7y agoThe puzzling thing is that first life appeared around Xmas 2009, just days after the lava cooled down. (probably)
- johnisgood 7y agoKnight Rider! Oh my sweet childhood. :D
- jacobush 7y agoBest I read all day
- 7y ago
- dredmorbius 7y agoThe Milky Way is ~150,000 - 250,000 light years across, and rotates -- call it a galactic year -- once every 240 million years. At that scale, 3.5 million years would be like about 5 days relative to Earth's year. So: earlier this week, more or less.