Size Matters! ***P I C S***

[S P A N N O W]

This simple comparison of the Earth in relation to other solar bodies might leave you feeling a little small.











Something to think about...

[DWB]

Antares looks like one bad mofo.

[CamsLord]

nice pics!

[xclusive]

That is so amazingly cool

[woj]

interesting

[fallenmuffin]

Just think about all the real estate that I could sell on Antares. [/capitalistic view]

Damn, thats very interesting.

[tenderobject]

nice! so where can we find antares? from what galaxy? you might ever think that ufo's/aliens/other species exist in the galaxy. very amazing

[madawgz]

wow, fucking awesome!

i cant wait until we all venture off into outer space

[fallenmuffin]

wow, fucking awesome!

i cant wait until we all venture off into outer space

For 20k I believe you can take a private rocket up into outterspace..

[wdforty]

Are those huge ones stars or planets?

[Farang]

holy crap, we're so small

[soulbleed]

sweet pics

[VicJay]

This is awesome

[S P A N N O W]

nice! so where can we find antares? from what galaxy?

ANTARES (Alpha Scorpii). A brilliant jewel set within the Milky Way, Antares guides us to one of the great constellations of the sky, the Zodiac's Scorpius (or Scorpio), the celestial scorpion, one of the few constellations that actually looks like what it represents. Antares, a class M (M1.5) red supergiant gleaming redly at the scorpion's heart, has a color similar to Mars. Since it is found within the Zodiac, which contains the apparent path of the Sun and planets, it is commonly mistaken for the red planet, a fact shown by its name, Antares, or "Ant-Ares," which means "like Mars," "Ares" being the Greek name for the god of war. This magnificent first magnitude (typically 0.96) star, shining opposite Betelgeuse, its counterpart in Orion, is ranked the 15th brightest in the sky. It is, however, a semi-regular variable that can change by several tenths of magnitude over a period of years. Its great distance of 600 light years reveals that it is truly luminous, to the eye over 10,000 times brighter than the Sun. Because it is cool, only about 3600 degrees Kelvin at its surface, it radiates a considerable amount of its light in the invisible infrared. When that is taken into account, the star becomes some 60,000 times brighter than the Sun. A low temperature coupled with high luminosity tells us that the star must be huge, luminosity and temperature giving a radius of about 3 Astronomical Units. It is so big that astronomers can easily detect and measure the size of its apparent disk, which gives an even bigger radius of 3.8 AU, three-fourths the size of the orbit of Jupiter The difference is caused by uncertainties in distance, temperature, and the actual location of the mass-losing surface, as the star is slowly evaporating under a fierce wind that has encased it in a gas cloud, or nebula, that shines by light scattered from the ultraluminous star within. Buried within the wind is a fifth magnitude (5.5) hot class B (B2.5) companion star (only 3 seconds of arc away) that hides within Antares' bright glare. The two are separated by roughly 550 AU and take perhaps 2500 years to orbit each other. The companion hollows out a small ionized region within the wind, and although blue-white, has the reputation of appearing green as a result of a contrast effect with its brilliant reddish mate. Antares, with a mass of 15 to 18 solar masses, probably does not have much time left to it. It is massive enough someday to develop an iron core and eventually to explode as a brilliant supernova. The event may be a million years off, an astronomical blink of an eye; or it may occur tonight, so keep a watch on one of the great stars of the nighttime sky. The companion, however, at around 7 to 8 solar masses, seems to be just below the supernova limit and will probably die as a massive white dwarf.

[Pornwolf]

Sirius looks really hot.

[S P A N N O W]

Sirius looks really hot.

SIRIUS (Alpha Canis Majoris). From Orion, look south and to the east to find brilliant Sirius, as if one really needs directions to find the brightest star in the sky. Its name comes from the Greek word for "searing" or "scorching," certainly appropriate for a star that shines at the bright end of the "minus-first" (-1.47) magnitude. Sirius is the luminary of the constellation Canis Major, the Greater Dog, which represents Orion's larger hunting dog, and as such is commonly referred to as the "Dog Star." So great is its prominence that it has two "announcer stars" that from the mid- northern hemisphere rise before it, Procyon and Mirzam. Famed from times long past, the first glimpse of Sirius in dawn announced the rising of the Nile in ancient Egypt. (It no longer does because of precession, the 26,000-year wobble of the Earth's axis.) Sirius is also part of a large asterism, the Winter Triangle, the other two stars of which are Betelgeuse in Orion and Procyon in the smaller dog, Canis Minor. Because of its brilliance, Sirius is the champion of all twinklers, the effect caused by variable refraction in the Earth's atmosphere. The star, a white class A (A1) hydrogen-fusing dwarf with a temperature of 9880 Kelvin, is bright in part because it is indeed rather luminous, 26 times more so than the Sun, but mostly because it is nearby, a mere 8.6 light years away, just double that of the closest star to the Earth (Alpha Centauri) and the fifth closest star system. Sirius is "metal rich," its iron content triple that of the Sun, most likely from some sort of elemental diffusion. With a radius of 1.75 solar (in agreement with the measured angular diameter) and a minimum equatorial rotation speed of 16 kilometers per second, Sirius rotates in under 5.5 days. The star's greatest claim to fame may be its dim eighth magnitude (8.44) companion, Sirius B, which is visually nearly 10,000 times fainter than the bright star, Sirius A. Sirius B, however, is actually the hotter of the two, a blue-white 24,800 Kelvin. Though typically separated from each other by a few seconds of arc, Sirius B is terribly difficult to see in the glare of Sirius A. The only way the companion star can be both hot and dim is to be small, only 0.92 the size of Earth, the total luminosity (including its ultraviolet light) just 2.4 percent that of the Sun. The two orbit each other with a 50.1 year period at an average distance of 19.8 Astronomical Units, about Uranus's distance from the Sun, a large orbital eccentricity carrying them from 31.5 AU apart to 8.1 AU and back again. They were closest in 1994 and will be again in 2044, while they will be farthest apart in 2019. From the orbit (and spectroscopic data), we find that Sirius A and B have respective masses of 2.12 and 1.03 times that of the Sun. Sirius B is the chief member of a trio of classic white dwarfs, the others Procyon B and 40 Eridani B. Its high mass and tiny radius lead to an amazing average density of 1.7 metric tons per cubic centimeter, roughly a sugar cube. White dwarfs are the end products of ordinary stars like the Sun, tiny remnants that were once nuclear-fusing cores that have run out of fuel. Most are balls of carbon and oxygen whose fates are merely to cool forever. To have evolved first, Sirius B must once have been more massive and luminous than Sirius A. That its mass is now lower is proof that stars lose considerable mass as they die. Given the 250 million year age of the system, Sirius B may once have been a hot class B3 star that could have contained as much as 6 or 7 solar masses, the star losing over 80 percent of itself back into interstellar space through earlier winds.

[Jensen]

hola mama.. nice to see

[Pinklinkz]

bloody hell .. it costs us about hahaha163;2k for a trip from one side of the earth to the other .. imagine that on antares
just a thought

[fallenmuffin]

We could move the whole earth there.. and still have unlimited space. Every human being could have like 500,000 acers and still we would have room to spare..

[Pornwolf]

I wanna know how the scientist's truly know a distant solar system is 250 million years old. How do you guesstimate such a thing?

[S P A N N O W]

I wanna know how the scientist's truly know a distant solar system is 250 million years old. How do you guesstimate such a thing?

Astronomers estimate that the Big Bang occurred between 10 and 20 billion years ago. They estimate the age of the Universe in two ways: (a) by looking for the oldest stars; and (b) by measuring the rate of expansion of the Universe and extrapolating back to the Big Bang.

Astronomers can figure out the ages of some of the oldest stars in the Universe by studying globular clusters. A globular cluster is a dense collection of close to a million stars, all of which formed at roughly the same time. The density of stars near the center of a globular cluster is enormous. If we lived near the center of a globular cluster, there would be several hundred thousand stars closer to us than Alpha Centauri, our current nearest stellar neighbor.
The life cycle of a star depends upon its mass. High mass stars are much brighter than low mass stars; thus they rapidly burn through their supply of hydrogen fuel. A star like the Sun has enough fuel in its core to burn at its current brightness for approximately 9 billion years. A star that is twice as massive as the Sun will burn through its fuel supply in only 800 million years. A 10 solar mass star (a star that is 10 times more massive than the Sun) burns nearly a thousand times brighter and has only a 20 million year fuel supply. Conversely, a star that is half as massive as the Sun burns slowly enough for its fuel to last more than 20 billion years.

Since all of the stars in a globular cluster formed at roughly the same time, these clusters can serve as cosmic clocks. If a globular cluster is more than 10 million years old, then all of its hydrogen burning stars will be less massive than 10 solar masses. This implies that no individual hydrogen burning star will be more than 1000 times brighter than the Sun. If a globular cluster is more than 2 billion years old, then there will be no hydrogen-burning star more massive than 2 solar masses.

The oldest globular clusters contain only stars less massive than 0.7 solar masses. These low mass stars are much dimmer than the Sun. This suggests that the oldest globular clusters are between 11 and 18 billion years old. The uncertainty in this estimate is due to the difficulty in determining the exact distance to a globular cluster (hence, an uncertainty in the brightness (and mass) of the stars in the cluster). Another source of uncertainty in this estimate lies in our ignorance of some of the finer details of stellar evolution.

[babsy]

We could move the whole earth there.. and still have unlimited space. Every human being could have like 500,000 acers and still we would have room to spare..

Well, you could, except that it's a star and has no solid surface. The further in you go you just get more and more dense gas / plasma. It's an interesting science fiction premise, however, to consider living in giant ships riding the wind in the cooler outer layers of a supergiant star. It's not all *that* hot, certainly not so much that you couldn't engineer technical solutions to the problem, and the heat that there is would be useful for generating electricity.

[2HousePlague]

-- perspective --

2hp

[Ivana Fukalot]

interesting info. I didnt know that Earth is so small

[pelcito]

very nice comparation . If Earth were of the size of Antares, imagine how much time should it take to travel from pole to pole.

[hova]

I feel like Antares

[Pornwolf]

Another source of uncertainty in this estimate lies in our ignorance of some of the finer details of stellar evolution.

This is probably the biggest understatement I've seen. We have no real clue how it all started nor do we know where to begin guessing.

[CaptainHowdy]

WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! (eventually)

[gooddomains]

the sky is falling down

[notabook]

Poor sun... so small, so small. I guess it's an asian star in a sea of black people

[Violetta]

holy goat!

[S P A N N O W]

...an asian star in a sea of black people

[inthecrack]

Fascinating stuff. Now I'd like to see a graphic ilustration of the distances between the planets, solar systems, and gallaxies. Anyone even made a 3D map of the universe?

[calibra]

That's something to think about

[J. Falcon]

That was cool.

[S P A N N O W]

Fascinating stuff. Now I'd like to see a graphic ilustration of the distances between the planets and solar systems...

and gallaxies...

Anyone even made a 3D map of the universe?

You asked...

[inthecrack]

Those maps need a "you are here" sign.

[S P A N N O W]

Those maps need a "you are here" sign.

You're on your own there....

[PinkElectric]

[Mike_AWP]

Antares looks like one bad mofo.

[Bansheelinks]

Something to think about...

Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse!

Now where's Michael Keaton?

[MakingCoin_Fatal]

interesting topic...! we need more of this topic here on gfy... lol!

[BluewireAngie]

Interesting!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

[Deej]

whoa crazy....betelgeuse is the armpit of ORion....the only red (or what I thought was a star) star in our astrological signs.


thanks for the wrinkle in my brain

[marketsmart]

ur anus is huge... how did it get so big?

[MaddCaz]

big balls yo

[stickyfingerz]

My cock is so big I just came and Antares shot out.

Ill forward that one to Drew Carey now.

[Tom_PM]

Conan O'briens head = Saturn
Normal human head = Neptune

[WebairGerard]

that's is truly amazing

[ridikuloz]

My balls make Antares look like a small marble.