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If they're circling the Milky Way, they are close, in a cosmic sense. The milky way is only 100,000 light years across. Stars of a certain small size will als
by colechristensen 2y ago
If they're circling the Milky Way, they are close, in a cosmic sense.
The milky way is only 100,000 light years across.
Stars of a certain small size will also continue shining for a trillion years.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoYeah, it's interesting that folks seemed to take offense at what I said. It's really pretty much exactly what you'd hear, from any astronomer (which I'm not, but one of my favorite shows is How the Universe Works). Not all stars are created equal. Blue giants may only live a few billion years, while red dwarfs will last practically forever.
- colechristensen 2y agoThese are 13 billion year old stars that are only 30,000 light years away, that’s like one part in 40,000 of how long they’ve lived. They are most certainly still there shining. Is just incorrect to be pedantic about there light being there but maybe not them.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoThat was a rhetorical statement. It's a "Here, there be dragonnes" type of thing. We say stuff like that, hereabouts, all the time. My statement was incredibly mild, compared to some of the crazy stuff people say, here.
- colechristensen 2y agoShrug, unnecessary pedantry is indeed a theme around here, I try to resist the urge but am guilty of it myself from time to time.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoI suspect that a number of folks didn’t realize where the quote came from. They were talking about distant galaxies, not the relatively nearby stars.
- Keysh 2y agoBlue giants live only a few million years to a few tens of millions of years.