Astronomy

Hi

Astronomy, as opposed to Astrology.

I am a Scientist, but always done the little things, Chemicals, Bacteria.

I was introduced to Astronomy by Surfermom.

It is fascinating, the Maths in particular, but also very scary.

It makes you realise just how insignificant we are in the overall scale of things.

Mankind as a whole,nevermind us as individuals, are just a flash in the pan, absolutely insignificant.

It makes me wonder what is out there.

Re: Astronomy

My grandson(13) is very interested in astronomy.

Re: Astronomy

Well, that's just strange...twice I tried to post and twice it disappeared. Sorry for the late reply, swimfeeders.

Yes, it's an incredible field - one of the few that literally allows us to look back with near perfect images of what was going on 13.4 billion years ago out of a universe that was 13.7 years old. Here is the oldest, farthest galaxy from us courtesy of NASA:

[url=https://imgbb.com/]

Then on another front, it is now estimated that there could be 11 billion planets orbiting stars similar in size to our sun, in the habitable zone, in the Milky Way alone.

What are the chances that just one of those could have at least a primitive form of microscopic life? Well you would need to look for the right kind of atmospheres for starters. (This is an area on which I am currently working).

Now take those 11 billion planets and multiply that by a conservative estmate of 10 billion estimated galaxies in the universe, and we are looking at 110,000,000,000 possible places to find life. The chances look reasonably good!

Astronomy and the mathematics that goes with it are awesome in the truest sense of the word.

Every single one of us has won the cosmic lottery - we are rich beyond measure to be alive, sentient, rational beings in this vast time and place.

Re: Astronomy

That's great! Does he have a telescope?

Re: Astronomy

I am not sure.

Re: Astronomy

all we get is grey overcast skies here in the UK most of the time

Re: Astronomy

I have a Celestron NexStar telescope, that my ex partner and myself used to look at the night sky with!
We mainly saw satellites but l think it was Mars we saw as well!

Where l live, wasn’t so good as there is a lot of light pollution due to the the street lights.