How do we know how many galaxies there are in the Universe?

[Quixote1818]

[Xipe Totec]

1. Just added another video to my Geekdom playlist. Thanks!

[RC]

2. There is no way we are all alone in the universe.

But how will we ever know?

[Quixote1818]

6. Even if there is just one planet per gelaxy with a civilization, that means there are

at least 100 billion civilizations out there. The number is probably that times a 100 or perhaps 1,000, maybe more.

[RC]

11. If any of them are anything like us, than it is a good thing we all are spread far and wide.

I'm pretty sure we don't have an exclusive on war and killing each other.

[AAO]

12. Impossible in only 6000 years. TROLL!!

[jtuck004]

3. Now that is one special video. And the music isn't objectionable, for a change <G>. Thank you!

One just has to think, given the numbers and structures that exist, there must be life out there. And I wouldn't be surprised if they are looking at us thinking,

"They shoot monkeys into space. Really? ROGFFL.

(Rolling on my Gravity-Field Floor, Laughing...)

[Lionel Mandrake]

4. ET, whence comest thou?

Visitors from a more advanced civilization probably visited the Earth a long time ago, looked around, and departed, knowing that the pathetic life forms here would never amount to much.

[paleotn]

9. And they were right.

Then again, maybe they went through the "terrible twos" or whatever stage we're in and survived as a species. Jury is still out on us.

[democratisphere]

5. Great presentation and information.

More than 100 Billion Galaxies in the Universe is amazing. Aliens that have visited our Earth are still looking for signs of intelligent life.

[jimlup]

7. Cool! Good solid explainations...

...

Well done... I'm a Ph.D. physicist and I can't get my head around the size of the visible universe.

[Quixote1818]

8. The Universe is probably just a proton inside the brain of some giant creature

Either that or we are a proton in an atom inside its excrement.

[mitty14u2]

10. This must be a Satanic Web Site, Republicans don’t believe in Science this is all devilish nonsense!

Last edited Sat Jan 4, 2014, 11:08 PM - Edit history (1)

This must be a Satanic Web Site, Republicans don’t believe in Science this is all devilish nonsense! Besides the earth is only 5 thousand years old, you are all going to Hell. Yo "Sarcasm"

[Boomerproud]

13. Go to YouTube-there's actually a vid about Hillary Clinton having a Satanic American flag at a rally

The stars are upside-down dontcha know! The person who uploaded it was serious-as are most of the comments. Unbelieveable.

[mitty14u2]

14. Creationists Once Again Threaten to Make a Mockery of Texas Science Education

Let me get this out of the way immediately: The Earth is more than 4 billion years old. Evolution is real and is the basis for all modern understanding of biology. Climate change is happening, and humans are causing it.

These fundamental scientific truths are agreed upon by the vast, overwhelming majority of scientists who study those particular fields, because of the vast, overwhelming evidence in those particular fields supporting them. It’s important that we teach this to young students, as well as how to understand what constitutes real evidence as opposed to ideological zealotry.

If you live in Texas, however, that necessity is under a real threat. It has been for a long time; in 2007 Gov. Rick Perry appointed Don McLeroy, a young-Earth creationist, to head the state Board of Education (BoE), setting up a situation where education in Texas suffered mightily. In 2009 the state science standards were weakened, with clearly Biblically based beliefs behind the effort. In 2010 the BoE approved revisionist history in the textbooks (including apologetics for Joseph McCarthy, in case you were wondering just how ridiculous this stuff gets). In 2011 Texas creationists tried to get religious supplemental materials inserted into classes but lost. It goes on and on, and all the while they’ve been picking away at science and reality.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101681759

I posted that on DU, I am sorry if you don't like my sense of humor but its there card not mine, this is a great Video, Scratch that Fantastic and enlightening Video.

[bearssoapbox]

15. We can hope that if we are seriously visited by ETs

they are more advanced in attitude and the way they treat other beings/life forms than we are.

[heaven05]

16. truth will set us free

[malthaussen]

18. You could at least float the argument...

... that in order to survive long enough to get off their planet, such aliens would have to develop means to control the Hobbesian war of all against all.

But then, you could also float the argument that to survive and get off their planet, they'd just have to be meaner mofos than even we are.

-- Ml

[bearssoapbox]

20. To the first statement...

Hopefully that would be the case.

To the second...

Yup.

[Quixote1818]

19. I think Neil deGrasse Tyson's take on this makes more sense

Aliens would be so far beyond us they would just ignore us and find planets with more advanced civilizations. Not to mention anything on Earth such as water, minerals etc. are very common all over the universe so things like water would be of no interest.

[bearssoapbox]

21. I've seen that.

Hopefully we'd be nothing more than an example of a bad example.

Or they'd just fly by, point, and laugh.

I've always liked the way Neil deGrasse Tyson explains things.

[Jim Lane]

22. Filling in one gap in Tyson's video

He pointed out that, on the scale of the office globe he's holding, the International Space Station is three-eighths of an inch above the surface, the Moon is about 30 feet away, and Mars is about a mile away. Then he said, as to the distance to the nearest star system, "Forget it!"

That was the only thing I didn't like about the video. I know it's far, but I wanted to know how far.

Based on the apparent size of his globe and on his placing the Moon 30 feet away, I did some ballpark calculations and came up with the nearest star system (Alpha Centauri AB and Proxima Centauri) being about 600,000 miles away. Remember, that's not 600,000 real miles. That's in the scaled-down universe where Neil deGrasse Tyson can juggle the Earth in one hand.

At this scale, the humans populating his globe are each about one or two millionths of an inch tall, roughly one one-hundredth the size of a bacterium in our world. These little microscopic speck-people are, with some justice, proud of having learned to travel 30 feet. It will be a while, however, before they can go 600,000 miles.

[malthaussen]

17. How about "pick a number?"

The "universe" has been "expanding" since I was a pup. It is now much older and bigger than it used to be.

Who is to say what it will be like in another 50 years?

-- Mal