Topic: Calling all big heads who know the trivial information about the our g
started by: PersonGuy
#1) How big is the milkey way? Preferably, how wide is it in light years?
#2) How many stars are in the milky way?
#3) What is the speed of light (in miles per second)?
It's pretty important... THANKS! 
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"Put the cheese on my bum." -Tom Green
-< PersonGuy >
quote:
Originally posted by PersonGuy:
#1) How big is the milkey way? Preferably, how wide is it in light years?#2) How many stars are in the milky way?
#3) What is the speed of light (in miles per second)?
this is the best I can do:
1) very big
2) a lot.
3) 186,000 miles per second.
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"just pressin y0 butt0ns f00" -- miNus
the radius of the galatic halo is ~300,000 light years.
there are ~10^12 stars in the milky way
Well... it was either in our galaxy or something like that, I was going between watching the show and throwing the new puppy around. And no, it's not animal crulity, it's training!
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Net Syndrome - < www.netsyndrome.net >
Catch The Sickness
These figures being estimates are in constant revision as more exact means of estimating based on evidence are found. Currently, the figure for the Milkyway's population of stars has in some circles been increased to roughly 400 billion, but I've never heard the 1 trillion figure before. I've also heard estimates of 120-175,000 lightyears for the diameter, but never 600,000 lightyears (twice a radius of 300,000) even relating to the galactic Halo, which is usually put at 130,000 light years when related to the 100,000 light year figure. That would put the galactic halo extending beyond both the magellanic clouds which are about 200,000 lightyears out.
None of these figures are exact, because they cannot be measured directly using our current methods and astronomical knowledge. Distances and sizes and numbers are based on statistical analysis of the areas around us that we know with greater precision, applied to areas we know with lesser precision. In other words, its a lot of guesses built on top of each other and checked against each other for accuracy. If they don't contradict, we figure they're accurate, and error margins are measured by the degrees of difference between various methods of arriving at the figures that somewhat contradict.
Edit: I found this site -
< http://community.silverlink.net/celestial/astronomy/proj/milkyway/milkyway.htm >
has some details that are kind of interesting, it is written by school kids for school kids, but the data is pretty accurate to what I learned in school. They also give some descriptions of things in the FAQ.
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Old farts never die, they just get blown away.
This message has been edited by Hellraiser on October 28, 2001 at 10:39 AM
cheers
Took me 2 and a half hours to get the point across that these things took millions of years, and we'd be safe. Then, just to freak him out, I made sure to say "well, as long as there aren't aliens that hate I Love Lucy, but we'll have roughly 50 years to prepare for that..."
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Net Syndrome - < www.netsyndrome.net >
Catch The Sickness
milky way is approx 10-15 kilo parsecs across its pretty vague in that dark matter hides its true radius
i would think you'd want it in kilo parsecs as thats what most people use for that sized distance but if you wanted to convert it off the top of my head i think theres 3E16 metres in a parsec and a light year is 3E8 metres per second going for (365 x 24 x 3600) seconds. i cant be assed to calculate it off the top of my head as i'm too busy d/l pr0n.
how many stars? jesus i'd say about 12E12 off the top of my head again.
if i get round to checking this stuff out and remembering to post i'll correct myself if i'm wrong but seeing as the actual values vary by a few orders of magnitude you cant really go much wrong in cosmology.
quote:thats PER galaxy we're talking about here thats plenty nuff for me thanks i dont want to have my galaxy collapse under its own gravitational pull thanks to you very much
1 trillion stars? are you sure? i thought there were a hole lot more...
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simultaneity is not absolute. So just because you think i'm wrong, from my frame of reference i'm right!
btw, what the hell is a parsec?
quote:
Originally posted by Dark Knight Bob:
*snip* i think theres 3E16 metres in a parsec *snip*
I'd have to say a parsec is 43,046,721 meters or so.
quote:
Originally posted by LazyGit:
Why do you want to know PersonGuy, going for a jog?
cheers
WOW! You guys are great!
Actually I useing it for my upcoming Digi Pen project for a little extra realism in space travel speed calculations.
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"Put the cheese on my bum." -Tom Green
-< PersonGuy >
quote:
Originally posted by PersonGuy:
Actually I useing it
quote:
Originally posted by PersonGuy:
for a little extra realism in space travel speed calculations.
wtf something is wrong there 
quote:
Originally posted by miNus:
I'd have to say a parsec is 43,046,721 meters or so.
nope its definetly 3E16 metres
i think you might be confusing that with an AU (astronomical unit) but i cant remember how big that is and i cant be assed to look in my notes so i'm just assuming you're making a random number up as some form of satire
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simultaneity is not absolute. So just because you think i'm wrong, from my frame of reference i'm right!
This message has been edited by Dark Knight Bob on October 30, 2001 at 04:23 AM
parsecs!
LUKE: But parsecs are a measure of distance, not time!
BEN: The boy is right.
CHEWIE: <growl>
[silence]
HAN: Fuck you all.
other good examples are masters of the universe "they are an eonparsec away"
and "wheetos chocoflavour over roundness = flavour"
so therefore the less round they are the more flavour they have
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simultaneity is not absolute. So just because you think i'm wrong, from my frame of reference i'm right!
not that star trek doesnt do just this but hey at least they TRY and put some effort in
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Oh and by the way, if you see your mum this weekend, be sure to tell her SATAN!!! - Orbital
cheers
quote:
Originally posted by Vigilante:
Actually, Georgy boy came up with a somewhat better excuse (still after the fact, of course) in later universe books. The Kessel system is near a cluster of black holes; travelling to it from wherever else that makes it a Kessel Run requires near passage to them. Hence, making the run in under 12 parsecs puts you dangerously close to the black hole gravwells.
Yeah...yeah, that's a really great explanation...
Seriously, let's dissect this claim and show what a steaming hot pile of dog shit it really is:
quote:
HAN: Han Solo. I'm captain of the Millennium Falcon. Chewie here tells
me you're looking for passage to the Alderaan system.
BEN: Yes, indeed. If it's a fast ship.
HAN: Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?
BEN: Should I have?
HAN: It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve
parsecs!
So, you can see Han is obviously referring to his ship, not himself. If doing the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs meant taking some shady, alternate route, he would have referred to his prowess as a star pilot. Again, here, the conversation is on the Falcon’s impressive speed, not Han’s maneuvering ability.
Let’s put it in a real-world scenario:
quote:
HAN: I’ve got the faster clipper ship on the seven seas!
BEN: This beat up catamaran? It's just a hunk of driftwood!
HAN: Hey pal, this hunk of driftwood made the Maui-Cuba run in half the time by sailing through the Panama Canal instead of around the Cape!
BEN: You're an idiot.
Personally, I think Georgie-porgie threw that line in simply to show us that Han talks out of his ass. But that’s just me.
quote:
Originally posted by LazyGit:
What's wrong with good old pounds, feet and hogsheads, huh?
cheers
you forgot slugs
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spdfgh
quote:
Originally posted by CatKnight:
you forgot slugs
and stones...
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When my flying days are over, and my death has come to pass
I hope they bury me upside down, so the whole damn world can kiss my ass
quote:
Originally posted by masher:
A parsec is 3.26 light years
THANK YOU. that is all i wanted to know.
christ, couldnt someone just tell me that in a normal form of measurement?! i dont get how the #E## system works.
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Screw this crap, I've had it. I ain't no Mr. Cool.
< =rwa= >
aEb = a * 10^b
quote:
Originally posted by ASCIIMan:
#E# "system":aEb = a * 10^b
Obviously.
Some easy ones:
1E0 = 1
1E1 = 10
1E2 = 100
1E3 = 1000
1 can be replaced by any number, although typically, people write large numbers in notation that keeps the number before the exponential value to be between 1 and 10, thus 57.9E5 is more likely to be written 5.79E6, and 0.72E13 is more likely to be written 7.2E12. Full scientific notation is written in the form of A * 10^m, the AEm format is used primarily on computers.
A really simple way to remember scientific notation is that you always move the decimal point the same number of places as the exponent, to the left if the exponent is negative and to the right if the exponent is positive:
5E-5 = 0.00005 <= 5 places to the left
5E5 = 500000 <= 5 places to the right
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Old farts never die, they just get blown away.
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Oh and by the way, if you see your mum this weekend, be sure to tell her SATAN!!! - Orbital