The Fear of Space
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The Overwhelming Size and Complexity of Space
- The first recorded footage of Earth from space highlights the feeling of impending terror that space portrays.
- Space's vast emptiness is more than just lonely, it's constricting.
- Jupiter, a gas giant, is a planet made of thick, never-ending storms with no solid surface.
- The raging storm on Jupiter, known as the "Raging Red Spot," has lasted for at least 400 years and is bigger than Earth itself.
- Similar storm patterns can be seen on Saturn and Neptune, the other two gas giants in our solar system.
- The complexity and size of planets in our galaxy alone make us wonder what other monsters are lurking in the shadows.
- Celestial objects, like stars, shine and behave in drastically intense ways, making a statement to the universe that they are the definition of power.
- Stars, like our sun, are luminous balls of gas that create a habitable zone for planets to exist.
- Most stars are incomprehensibly huge, millions of times bigger than Earth.
The Vastness and Loneliness of Space
- The size comparison between celestial objects evokes a sense of insignificance.
- The Sun is dwarfed by one of the biggest known stars in the observable universe, UY Scooty.
- UY Scooty is 325 million miles deep and showcases the immense size of celestial objects.
- Trying to conceptualize and explain the size of the universe is pointless due to our limited understanding.
- The Milky Way galaxy is small compared to clusters, superclusters, and galaxies like Andromeda.
- The space between galaxies, like the Milky Way and Andromeda, is vast and empty, taking 2.5 million years for light to travel.
- The darkness and nothingness of space between celestial objects evoke fear and a sense of loneliness.
The Brutal Scale of Time and the End of the Universe
- Picture: A picture of the Boots Void, a vast empty space measuring 330 million light years across.
- Boots Void makes up 2% of the entire universe.
- The void is a deep unknown filled with fear, dismay, and discomfort.
- The universe is constantly expanding, causing everything to grow farther apart.
- Eventually, the voids will grow so big and galaxies will move away too fast for us to reach them.
- The universe's expansion leads to an infinite and seemingly growing void that advises us to stay where we are.
- Over billions and trillions of years, the universe will continue to grow, leaving us surrounded by emptiness.
- As the universe expands, distances become a problem, and everything else will slowly start to burn away.
- The age of our universe is 13 billion years, and we are lucky to be observing it during a time of star growth.
- According to the heat death or slow death theory, the universe will continue to expand until star formation stops.
The Last Celestial Objects: Black Holes vs Black Dwarfs
- Black holes are incredibly dense objects that will be one of the last celestial objects remaining.
- White dwarfs, the remnants of exhausted stars, emit very little energy and have low luminosity.
- Black dwarfs are the final stage of a fully exhausted dwarf star and will likely turn into almost solid iron.
- Physicists estimate that it will take over 100 trillion years for all star formation to stop and all raw space material to exhaust.
- White dwarfs can burn for trillions of years, with the smallest and lowest output ones potentially surviving for quadrillions of years.
- However, black holes are viewed as endgame objects due to their immense density and weight.
- Black holes decay very slowly through Hawking radiation, where particles near the event horizon escape while others get sucked in.
- The theoretical time it would take for a black hole to decay is approximately 2 * 10^93 or a Google years.
The Final Moments of the Universe
- 32,000 black dwarfs will be the last remnants of the universe.
- These stars will be separated by unimaginable distances.
- They will serve as the final form of tangible entropy.
- Eventually, these black dwarfs will die and go supernova.
- This explosion will light up the universe once again.
- The fireworks of these supernovas will give hope for a new beginning.
The Fear and Insignificance of Space
- The vast emptiness of space evokes a feeling of impending terror and loneliness.
- Gas giants like Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune showcase never-ending storms and immense size.
- Celestial objects like stars, including our sun, shine and behave in drastically intense ways, highlighting their power.
- The size comparison between Earth and the sun emphasizes the insignificance of humans in the grand scheme of the universe.
- The darkness and nothingness of space between celestial objects evoke fear and a sense of emptiness.
- The expanding universe leads to an infinite and seemingly growing void, advising humans to stay where they are.
- The heat death theory predicts that star formation will eventually stop, leading to the exhaustion of raw materials and the slow decay of black holes.
- Black dwarfs, the final remnants of exhausted stars, will exist for an incredibly long time before going supernova and lighting up the universe once again.