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Ok, that is the first thing I've read that makes it sound like fun to be around in 4B years to watch it all happen. It is also interesting to think about two g
by ChuckMcM 7y ago
Ok, that is the first thing I've read that makes it sound like fun to be around in 4B years to watch it all happen.
It is also interesting to think about two galactic civilizations coming together over a common need to survive in the post collision Milkdromeda galaxy.
- thatswrong0 7y agoI don't think they'd really have to worry about survival: > it’s extremely unlikely that any individual stars will collide because of the sheer amount of empty space in galaxies.
- marcosdumay 7y agoThere is a large amount of star creation because of the disturbance it causes on gases, that may be a problem to life.
- outworlder 7y agoMany stars will get ejected into intergalactic space as well. Hopefully they are not the unlucky ones.
- Mirioron 7y agoWhat kind of impact would that have on a star and its planets?
- wereHamster 7y agoHumanity will have to find another start before that, because our sun will make life on Earth impossible way before 4B years from now.
- binarymax 7y agoNo need to wait for the sun to kill us. We're either extinct in the next 1k to 10k years or we've colonized other planets.
- pacala 7y agoWhat short time danger, geologically speaking, can be averted by space colonization?
- Ididntdothis 7y agoYeah. Earth will be the best place for us for a long time.
- sucrose 7y agoOnly thing I can think of at the moment, geologically-speaking and within a short time span could be a Super-volcano eruption that engulfs the atmosphere in smoke, causing another ice-age. Another method of danger could be a meteor impact, though it's time span is unknown until we detect it, and not sure if that fits your geological category.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ceejayoz 7y agoRelease of a nasty biological weapon, potentially.
- john_moscow 7y agoThe fact that humans, much like other species, are geared towards expansion. And once we run out of frontiers to conquer, that expansion energy seems to go towards biting each other's necks instead of solving common problems together. Doesn't seem to be specific to humans [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink
- SamBam 7y agoI was similarly thinking of other civilizations. It seems incredible that you could scan your eyes over a few degrees of sky and see a hundred billion other stars, of which some must have life-supportable planets [1]. So my thought process was: have their scientists realized that the Milky Way is going to collide with them in 4B years? Are they already sharing pictures of what it will look like?
- bitwize 7y agoAnd infinitely many stars you don't see. Cast a ray out in any direction from any point, and eventually it'll hit a star.
- ajross 7y agoIf that were true the night sky would be glowing like the surface of a star. In fact the overwhelming majority of rays cast intersect only the cosmic background, which was the primordial plasma at the time of recombination[1], long before any stars formed. [1] That is, when the hot gas cooled down enough to convert from free electrons and protons (and some helium nucleii) that scatter photons into neutral atoms that don't.
- peatmoss 7y agoYes, it was mind blowing to me to learn that, because the night sky is dark, the universe can’t be both infinitely old and infinitely sized. I’ve heard some nuances there too... we could be living in a finite pocket of an infinite universe.
- chowells 7y agoIt can't be infinitely old, infinitely sized, and static. That observation doesn't preclude infinitely old, infinitely sized, and expanding rapidly. Other factors make the infinitely old part unlikely, though.
- raattgift 7y ago
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]