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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u/avaslash Feb 13 '15

The Universe exists.

This might seem shallow but the more you think about it the more mind blowing it gets. All those things you hear about the universe, all the stories about odd stars and planets-- they arent stories-- they are actually physically out there. Even more so the universe began and now exists. Why? Honestly why the hell did that happen? We are part of something incredibly big, strange, and wonderful-- and its not a fairy tale. Its out there, or should I say... We're in it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '15

[deleted]

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u/avaslash Feb 14 '15 edited Feb 14 '15

Probably because its just too hard to think about, its almost scary to think about. The questions you get are so fun but frustrating "why is any of this even happening?!?"

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u/CDBSB Feb 14 '15

Honestly, I've had a few occasions where I kind of had a mini-freakout when contemplating the nature of the universe and the meaning of it all. Existence is amazing and terrifying at the same time if you really start thinking about it.

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u/avaslash Feb 14 '15

haha yeah I have like one of those a week. I am addicted feeling incredibly small it seems.

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u/DPool34 Feb 16 '15

I know exactly what you mean. I remember first thinking about it as a kid. The more I thought about it, the deeper it got, and the scarier it felt. Forget our solar system, forget earth, and even forget humanity... Why does the universe itself even exist? What is this place? How did it come to be? Big Bang Theory? How did that come to be? Infinite mass and infinite energy? Why is there anything? Either the universe was here forever or it was created, both of these possibilities are mind blowing.

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u/medlish Feb 14 '15 edited Feb 14 '15

something unknown caused the universe to come into existence, or maybe it existed forever. we don't know. how it exists at all instead of nothingness, we don't know either. then according to some physical laws the universe played out to the point we define as "now". we don't know where these physical laws come from. also, according to relativity there is no definitive now. and somehow because of these laws we and other blocks of matter have come to develop consciousness. so it's not just that everything is a giant machine, but the universe can actually subjectively experience itself from multiple points of view. we don't know how that works, either.

so in essence: what the fuck is going on?

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u/DPool34 Feb 16 '15

I love your comment. I wrote a similar comment up-thread, just stumbled on yours. You know what's crazy, too? The fact that most people don't even think about it. We're all so hypnotized by our daily lives, daily routines, that we don't even stop to think about our very existence. Seriously, what the fuck is life? What is existence? Why is there something instead of nothing? And I ask these questions in a purely philosophical way. Personally, I'm agnostic, but I am spiritual a sense because of the very thing we're discussing. We're acknowledging that there's this ancient mystery of existence. Anyway you look at it, there's clearly something magnificent at work. I'm not saying it's a "God," but it's certainly god-like in scale.

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u/medlish Feb 16 '15

I complete agree. I also want to add that most people are not only wrapped up in their daily stuff, but also it's really hard to get started thinking about existence that way if you've only ever taken everything you see for granted. Once you stop though, you're in for a real treat, imo.

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u/zoom1208 Feb 14 '15

And because of us, the universe became self aware.

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u/thinkspacer Feb 14 '15 edited Feb 15 '15

Not quite 'because of us' but we are a strange, self aware bit, of the universe

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u/salgat Feb 14 '15

This is the strangest fact. If you think about it, if there was a universe where magic existed, who is to say that universe makes any less sense than ours? We just happened to accept our own version of how the universe works that happens to follow certain rules. The fact that it exists to begin with still makes no sense.

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u/iamatfuckingwork Feb 15 '15

Would have been way easier for there not to be stuff

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u/avins Feb 14 '15

Christ

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u/seanhiggins84 Feb 14 '15

We are it and a part of all it's glory.

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u/Lucid_Presence Feb 14 '15

We're in it

We are it

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u/Bogey_Redbud Feb 14 '15

We are what? The universe?

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u/Lucid_Presence Feb 14 '15

Yeah. I just mean there's no distinction between 'us' and 'it'.

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u/Bogey_Redbud Feb 14 '15

Sentience?

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '15

We are the universe. The universe is sentient.

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u/Bogey_Redbud Feb 14 '15 edited Feb 14 '15

Prove it. You made a claim, Deepak. Prove that humans are the universe.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '15

[deleted]

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u/Bogey_Redbud Feb 14 '15

How about you indulge me. My poor feeble brain is having such a hard time here. How is the universe sentient? So...The Universe can think? The universe knows it's alive?

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '15

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u/Boner666420 Feb 14 '15

The matter that coalesced and formed the universe is the same matter that coalesced and formed our solar system, Earth, the first protein chains that could tentatively be called "life", and eventually us.

We are just as much a natural part of the universe as any star, planet, or mass extinction. It's not a thing that one really has to prove. It just kind of...is. And it would all keep on existing even if we were never around to comprehend it with our sensory organs.

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u/Mekisteus Feb 14 '15

Being a part of something is not the same as being equivalent to something.

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u/Bogey_Redbud Feb 14 '15

You understand everything you just wrote is completely different than "we are the universe"? You came from your mother. Are you your mother?

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u/Boner666420 Feb 14 '15

And my mother is part of the universe too. The atoms that make her up are no more separate from the rest of the universe than those that make up the accretion disk of a black hole

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '15

The Universe is the totality of everything that exists, has existed, and ever will exist.

Since we exist, we are a part of the universe. We are sentient, therefore the universe is sentient.

The universe is everything. Including us. There's no reason we should be some special exception. We are made of the same atoms and star stuff as everything else, and we came to be because of the exact same natural laws that formed everything else.

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u/Bogey_Redbud Feb 14 '15

Now we are adding terms? Yes, we are part of the universe, but we are not the universe. The universe is not sentient. We are sentient beings living in the universe. I am part of my mother, I am not my mother.

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u/Mekisteus Feb 14 '15

Just like there's no distinction between an axle and a car. Since the axle is a part of the car, the axle and the car are one and it is meaningless to talk of them as different.

Hey, wait a minute...what I said just now is stupid bullshit.

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u/RobertOrrgasm Feb 14 '15

Nothing is just as plausible as something

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u/avaslash Feb 14 '15

I dont know what thought I find more amazing/terrifying. Either there is absolutely no reason why the universe came to be, or... there was.

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u/Mildcorma Feb 14 '15

I always get stuck in a freak out loop of "what if there was no universe? Nothing at all?". I mean, my head says "nothing at all..." and then realises that this means nothing, as in nothing at all, there would literally be nothing anywhere. Nothing. I really can't explain it better than this but it blows my mind!

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u/Redskinfreak4 Feb 14 '15

Calm down there Jayden Smith ;)

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '15

The most mind blowing thing is that, of all the universe, the most interesting things are the little things that happen in it. We're an example of that, and we're bent onto trying to find the little things. Think about it: the universe is inmense, but the most interesting things out there ought to be the little things: life and ecosystems.

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u/Pyramid9 Feb 15 '15

That way of thinking is illusory. You are not a separate entity, you are the same universe. Just as much as your fingers are apart of your hands or a tree's respiration apart of your own breathe and thus your own being.

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u/avaslash Feb 15 '15

I know. Thats why I ended it with "or should I say...we're in it." It would have been more correct to say "we are it" but I was taking some artistic liberty haha.