When I was in the car today I was listening to BBC radio 4 and Home Planet - a sort of nature/science/environment programme based around questions people send into a panel.
One question for their resident astronomer was 'are there more stars than there are grains of sand on the earth'?
The astronomer went through a 'sampling' and scaling up explanation (having been prepared in advance) and did a very generalised but valid calculation that there are something 10000000000000000000 (that's 19 zeros) grains of sand on our beaches (he didn't include deserts) and that there are approximately 10000000000000000000000 That's 22 zeros - or a factor of 10 greater stars - and that is just for the universe so far visible.
It is an astonishing and mind boggling conclusion.
The stars like grains of sand...
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
And when you consider that most of those are far larger than our sun - that's a lot of 'stuff'! And we are claimed to be the pinnacle of creation?Rumertron wrote:When I was in the car today I was listening to BBC radio 4 and Home Planet - a sort of nature/science/environment programme based around questions people send into a panel.
One question for their resident astronomer was 'are there more stars than there are grains of sand on the earth'?
The astronomer went through a 'sampling' and scaling up explanation (having been prepared in advance) and did a very generalised but valid calculation that there are something 10000000000000000000 (that's 19 zeros) grains of sand on our beaches (he didn't include deserts) and that there are approximately 10000000000000000000000 That's 22 zeros - or a factor of 10 greater stars - and that is just for the universe so far visible.
It is an astonishing and mind boggling conclusion.
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Salman Rushdie
You talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic.
House MD
Who needs a meaning anyway, I'd settle anyday for a very fine view.
Sandy Denny
This is the wrong forum for bluffing
Paco
Yes, yes. But first I need to show you this venomous fish!
Calilasseia
I think we should do whatever Pawiz wants.
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Bella squats momentarily then waddles on still peeing, like a horse
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
Well. I can only speak for myselfXamonas Chegwé wrote:And we are claimed to be the pinnacle of creation?
Libertarianism: The belief that out of all the terrible things governments can do, helping people is the absolute worst.
Re: The stars like grains of sand...
You beat me to it. Bastard.Animavore wrote:Well. I can only speak for myselfXamonas Chegwé wrote:And we are claimed to be the pinnacle of creation?
Nobody expects me...
Re: The stars like grains of sand...
I iz the best.andrewclunn wrote:You beat me to it. Bastard.Animavore wrote:Well. I can only speak for myselfXamonas Chegwé wrote:And we are claimed to be the pinnacle of creation?
Libertarianism: The belief that out of all the terrible things governments can do, helping people is the absolute worst.
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Clinton Huxley
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
It's nonsense anyway. There are far more grains of sand in the footwells of my car after a week in Cornwall than there are stars in the sky. Fact.
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Gawdzilla Sama
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
Stay in character, damnit.Clinton Huxley wrote:It's nonsense anyway. There are far more grains of sand in the footwells of my carriage after a week in Cornwall than there are stars in the sky. Fact.
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
Mind boggling: Certainly, yes, when you think of the implications. Astonishing? I would have guessed there were many times more stars than grains of sand on Earth, but my thinking could have been all wrong.Rumertron wrote:When I was in the car today I was listening to BBC radio 4 and Home Planet - a sort of nature/science/environment programme based around questions people send into a panel.
One question for their resident astronomer was 'are there more stars than there are grains of sand on the earth'?
The astronomer went through a 'sampling' and scaling up explanation (having been prepared in advance) and did a very generalised but valid calculation that there are something 10000000000000000000 (that's 19 zeros) grains of sand on our beaches (he didn't include deserts) and that there are approximately 10000000000000000000000 That's 22 zeros - or a factor of 10 greater stars - and that is just for the universe so far visible.
It is an astonishing and mind boggling conclusion.
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It's not up to us to choose which laws we want to obey. If it were, I'd kill everyone who looked at me cock-eyed! - Rex Banner
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression. - Gary Larson
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Clinton Huxley
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
What am I, a performing 19th century monkeybitch?Gawdzilla wrote:Stay in character, damnit.Clinton Huxley wrote:It's nonsense anyway. There are far more grains of sand in the footwells of my carriage after a week in Cornwall than there are stars in the sky. Fact.
Don't answer that.
"I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"
AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!
http://25kv.co.uk/date_counter.php?date ... 20counting!!![/img-sig]
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"
AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
Ouch.Clinton Huxley wrote:What am I, a performing 19th century monkeybitch?Gawdzilla wrote:Stay in character, damnit.Clinton Huxley wrote:It's nonsense anyway. There are far more grains of sand in the footwells of my carriage after a week in Cornwall than there are stars in the sky. Fact.
Don't answer that.
That was me, biting my tongue.
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Clinton Huxley
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
I predict less than 19 seconds will elapse before someone else posts that they'd like to bite your tongue....Bella Fortuna wrote:Ouch.Clinton Huxley wrote:What am I, a performing 19th century monkeybitch?Gawdzilla wrote:Stay in character, damnit.Clinton Huxley wrote:It's nonsense anyway. There are far more grains of sand in the footwells of my carriage after a week in Cornwall than there are stars in the sky. Fact.
Don't answer that.
That was me, biting my tongue.
"I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"
AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!
http://25kv.co.uk/date_counter.php?date ... 20counting!!![/img-sig]
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"
AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
Hubble recently looked at one 'square inch' of the sky for 11 hours. It in effect looked back a looooong way in time as well as distance and it gleaned light which normally does not reach us. There were ten million stars in that one square inch.
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Re: The stars like grains of sand...
Here's a link to some versions of that image the highest here is over 8 Mb so download it rather than viewing it in your browser, which could give it headaches.Rumertron wrote:Hubble recently looked at one 'square inch' of the sky for 11 hours. It in effect looked back a looooong way in time as well as distance and it gleaned light which normally does not reach us. There were ten million stars in that one square inch.
I
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archiv ... es/1996/01
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