To Hell With Star Charts! Go That Way!
O.K. boys and girls, it’s Science Quiz time!
Here is the problem! We have decided that we are going to take the next big step and travel to some of the nearest stars.
You, as navigator, have the Encyclopedia Galactica, and you open a hologram of the Milky Way Galaxy to aid in navigation.
(That’s our Galaxy, so if you didn’t know that right away you might as well stop right now and go count chickens or something!)
So far, this is pretty simple! We have these millions of stars floating around in a giant pinwheel that is slowly turning. BUT! Where are these stars in real time?
(click to enlarge)
Do we place them according to how we see them? No!
This would mean that the nearest star(s), the binary system of Alpha Proxima and Alpha Centauri would be shown where they were about 4.2 years ago since that is how long it took the light to get here!
Other stars could be in positions they were in - 50 – a hundred – a thousand - or even - 50 thousand years ago.
The problem is that if we want to go to some system (Alpha Centauri) we can’t aim for the spot we see it at, and we also can’t aim for where it is now, since we have to “lead” the shot just like a bullet.
So, the time it takes to get there will determine the point in space we aim for.
Or, we could play God and pretend that distance doesn’t matter!
Instead, you place all the stars exactly where they are at this precise moment in time, plus their speed and direction of travel in regard to the Galaxy as a whole.
This is something that would have to be done one star at a time for the more than a hundred million stars in the Galaxy!
OK. Then when we have all the stars placed where they actually are at this moment, and we then adjust for each destination.
But, this still doesn’t give us an accurate picture of what the Galaxy really looks like from the sky here on Earth! (Terra) No matter where in the Galaxy you observe it from, the view will always be different because of the slow speed of light! (300,000 km a second!)
See my point, said the father to his son? It's all relative!
Your "Dr. Who" scribe;
Allan W Janssen
On a side note here, travelling faster than the speed of light is certainly possible! The further an object is from us the faster it recedes until you get an object so many billions of light years away that it's recession speed is greater than light.
The problem with this is that it then disappears from our view - or maybe even from our universe entirely! (Comments Welcome)!
Here is the problem! We have decided that we are going to take the next big step and travel to some of the nearest stars.
You, as navigator, have the Encyclopedia Galactica, and you open a hologram of the Milky Way Galaxy to aid in navigation.
(That’s our Galaxy, so if you didn’t know that right away you might as well stop right now and go count chickens or something!)
So far, this is pretty simple! We have these millions of stars floating around in a giant pinwheel that is slowly turning. BUT! Where are these stars in real time?
(click to enlarge)Do we place them according to how we see them? No!
This would mean that the nearest star(s), the binary system of Alpha Proxima and Alpha Centauri would be shown where they were about 4.2 years ago since that is how long it took the light to get here!
Other stars could be in positions they were in - 50 – a hundred – a thousand - or even - 50 thousand years ago.
The problem is that if we want to go to some system (Alpha Centauri) we can’t aim for the spot we see it at, and we also can’t aim for where it is now, since we have to “lead” the shot just like a bullet.
So, the time it takes to get there will determine the point in space we aim for.
Or, we could play God and pretend that distance doesn’t matter!
Instead, you place all the stars exactly where they are at this precise moment in time, plus their speed and direction of travel in regard to the Galaxy as a whole.
This is something that would have to be done one star at a time for the more than a hundred million stars in the Galaxy!
OK. Then when we have all the stars placed where they actually are at this moment, and we then adjust for each destination.
But, this still doesn’t give us an accurate picture of what the Galaxy really looks like from the sky here on Earth! (Terra) No matter where in the Galaxy you observe it from, the view will always be different because of the slow speed of light! (300,000 km a second!)
See my point, said the father to his son? It's all relative!
Your "Dr. Who" scribe;
Allan W Janssen
On a side note here, travelling faster than the speed of light is certainly possible! The further an object is from us the faster it recedes until you get an object so many billions of light years away that it's recession speed is greater than light.
The problem with this is that it then disappears from our view - or maybe even from our universe entirely! (Comments Welcome)!
Labels: encyclopedia galactica, galaxy, light, space ship, space travel, speed of light
posted by Allan W Janssen | 4:22 p.m.
3 Comments:
Stick to political punditry. Your grasp of science is a bit shaky.
Please tell me where I went wrong! Seemed rather straight forward logic. If not enough room here send an e-mail and I will publish it! Allan
You were right about the science but I can't say the same for that pun on the end!
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