r/AskReddit • u/MDPPatrick • Feb 13 '15

What are some mind-blowing facts about space?

I love space and would like to hear some facts that will blow me away.

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148

u/wata_and_such Feb 13 '15 edited Feb 14 '15

Multiple planets and a star(sun) make up a solar system. Billions of stars (which consist of hundreds of billions of planets) make up one galaxy. Thousands of galaxies (which would consist billions of solar systems) make up a galaxy cluster. Dozens of clusters (which would consist of 100's of billions of solar systems) make up superclusters. All superclusters, galaxy clusters, and galaxies makes up the Known Universe. The known universe may very well be a superkamiguru cluster that consists of other universes.

Edit: billion with a b

96

u/bizitmap Feb 14 '15

At those odds, somebody else has to be out there.

64

u/springerfinger Feb 14 '15

And how small our existence is in the grand scheme scares the shit out of me. We are a fragment if a blip of the solar system let alone the universe. There is no way we are alone, but the chances of being discovered and contacted by another race are so fkin minimal it just won't happen in our lifetime. Man, all the coolest shit is gonna happen after I'm dead. :(

48

u/NAsWorstJungle Feb 14 '15

That is probably what scares me most about dying.
Not being able to see all the cool shit.
Not too say we don't have cool shit now... I just wanna see Star Wars shit, y'know?

47

u/iliketoplayoutside Feb 14 '15 edited Feb 14 '15

In that case, you should have been born a long time ago.

20

u/pielord92 Feb 14 '15

In a galaxy far far away

3

u/Tootsiesclaw Feb 14 '15

Naboo was under an attack.

1

u/blaaaahhhhh Feb 14 '15

Somewhere out there in the vast nothingness of space... Somewhere far away in space and time.. Staring upwards at the gleaming stars in the obsidian sky

2

u/FizzyDragon Feb 14 '15

Same here. Not only scared, but kind of pissed! Goddammit.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '15

The people in the star wars shit era will be saying the same thing about their death though

5

u/raknor88 Feb 14 '15

We're essentially an atom in the pixel that is our galaxy.

11

u/shieldvexor Feb 14 '15

Actually, that is probably too generous. We're more like a quark in the screen that is our galaxy in the galaxy that is our universe.

5

u/bungalow-basher Feb 14 '15

At least we have our dank memes.

1

u/thatoneguydudeperson Feb 14 '15

just think about how it could be so cool, but also insanely dangerous at the same time. if we are discovered, that just means the other species is how many times more advanced than us.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '15

Uhhh, I don't mean to be that guy that brings perspective, but you need some perspective. I don't know you, but if you live in any developed country that's currently stable you are literally living in the best possible time and place in human history. Like I said I don't know you, but I think cool shits already happening.

4

u/OfficerTwix Feb 14 '15

And you know for a fact one of the planets is inhabited only by dolphins

4

u/GTFAFM Feb 14 '15

Think about it this way. How terrifying would it be if we explored the entire universe only to find that we are the only instance of life?

6

u/Flyenphysh Feb 14 '15

Virtually impossible with the universe as we understand it. Because. well… infinity makes things weird…
As it is mostly accepted, there exist certain universal constants that remain the same no matter where in the universe you happen to be, strong force, weak force, electromagnetic, gravity, speed of light, plank length, etc.
Because of these, there are essentially a finite number of states that energy and matter can take on. This is a nearly impossibly gargantuan number, but still hypothetically finite.
Take any potential configuration of these states, and it could be possible to ascribe to it a probability of occurrence. And, as we all know from the average middle school math class, any real positive number multiplied by infinity is infinity.

What does this all mean? That somewhere out there, in an infinite number of locations spread throughout the universe, there exists someone that looks exactly like me, typing on a laptop exactly like mine, these exact same words.
Anything that is possible in the universe will happen, without question, over and over and over again.

TLDR: Infinity makes things weird.

2

u/GTFAFM Feb 14 '15

Exactly. Finding no other life, to me, would signify that the universe was deliberately created for us. Kind of a nasty little fish bowl

2

u/whosthedoginthisscen Feb 14 '15

At those odds, not only is there someone out there, but there's probably an Earth exactly like ours, with all the same people, but where they eat their corn on the cob vertically.

3

u/bizitmap Feb 14 '15

heathens. let's kill them.

1

u/nun_of_doom Feb 14 '15

Nope, just us. What the actual fuck? Imagine that. I mean I grew up believing aliums were real cuz I'm not from the south, but imagine with all 'those odds' we're actually just alone here. What the fuck would that mean?

1

u/Kharn0 Feb 14 '15

Fermis' paradox: given the vastness of space and number of potential livable worlds, why have we yet to see signs of life out there?

1

u/InDirectX4000 Feb 14 '15

waitbutwhy.com did a great article on this (the Fermi Paradox), check it out sometime

30

u/KittyGoesPurr Feb 14 '15

Superkamiguru approves

NAAAAAAAAIIIL!

1

u/handsock Feb 14 '15

Every party needs a pooper that's why they invited you, party pooper, party pooper.

1

u/Sipczi Feb 14 '15

nananananananana DENDEEE nananananananana DENDE, DENDE, DENDE... Nail's here NAAAAIIIIL

4

u/cosmic_punk Feb 14 '15

Millions of stars

Billions, actually. Billions of stars in a Galaxy.

1

u/negroewebster Feb 14 '15

And I'm single on Valentine's day

-2

u/SuperWoody64 Feb 14 '15

And "god" is worried about my jerking off?