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(Cracked) Interesting The six most mind-blowing things ever discovered in space   (cracked.com) divider line 108
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30205 clicks; posted to Main » on 18 Oct 2011 at 1:55 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



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2011-10-18 11:36:53 AM
7) Your mom
 
2011-10-18 11:50:33 AM
List is fail without the Voorwerp.
 
2011-10-18 12:16:37 PM
content8.flixster.com

Not even close
 
2011-10-18 12:42:04 PM
Douglas Adams called this.
 
2011-10-18 12:46:49 PM
FTFA: Scientists have known for a while that lightning isn't unique to Earth. They've observed lightning on Mars and Saturn. What they didn't know is that lightning could occur in the middle of goddamn space, with a force equal to a trillion lightning bolts, or to use the proper scientific terms, 50 million farktons of electricity.

They've found the Nexus!
 
2011-10-18 01:20:14 PM
#3. A Cold Star

I saw this on Doctor Who, but most of the episode was all in his head so even he wasn't sure if it's possible...or was he sure? It was a confusing episode.
 
2011-10-18 01:57:00 PM
Cant access from work, could some kind soul paste the basics :)
 
2011-10-18 01:58:15 PM
Uranus.

/had to be done
 
2011-10-18 01:59:59 PM
Anything just now found was found and explained fully years ago by armchair scientists on Fark.

/sarcasm
 
2011-10-18 02:01:06 PM
Cythraul: 7) Your mom

Could not type fast enough. You win.


BTW - that diamond thing, don't tell Cecil Rhodes or there'll be endless war in the galaxy to control distribution ...
 
2011-10-18 02:03:58 PM
Well, thanks. That was cool.
 
2011-10-18 02:10:36 PM
Would someone please copy / paste the list here? Crack is blocked for me.

Thanks.
 
2011-10-18 02:12:41 PM
Walker: #3. A Cold Star

I saw this on Doctor Who, but most of the episode was all in his head so even he wasn't sure if it's possible...or was he sure? It was a confusing episode.


Isn't a "cold star" usually just called a planet?

Small... check.
Cold enough to touch... check.
Not capable of sustaining nuclear fusion... check.

Planet.
 
2011-10-18 02:12:47 PM
"Instead of spewing out energy like a normal black hole would, the black hole is excreting water vapor."

Space has the Hershey Squirts.
 
2011-10-18 02:13:55 PM
someahole: Small... check.
Cold enough to touch... check.
Not capable of sustaining nuclear fusion... check.


Wait, then why are they calling it a star? I agree with you, if it's not capable of sustaining fusion, it should be (at best) a gas giant.
 
2011-10-18 02:15:32 PM
ZoeNekros: #4. Lightning! (a blackhole that shoots off lightning bolts 1.5 times as large as the milky way)

Wait, lightning bigger than our entire galaxy? Someone needs to figure out a way to harness that energy1
 
2011-10-18 02:15:42 PM
#8. My goddamn car keys.
 
2011-10-18 02:16:03 PM
someahole Quote 2011-10-18 02:12:41 PM
Walker: #3. A Cold Star

I saw this on Doctor Who, but most of the episode was all in his head so even he wasn't sure if it's possible...or was he sure? It was a confusing episode.

Isn't a "cold star" usually just called a planet?

Small... check.
Cold enough to touch... check.
Not capable of sustaining nuclear fusion... check.

Planet.


Planet with enough gravity, even though it's the same size as mercury, to crush you into a lump the size of of a grain of sand....check.
 
2011-10-18 02:18:32 PM
If the cold star is a brown dwarf that was recently discovered, one of the interesting features regarding it is that it would be possible for water to exist on/in the star.

Given the size of the star, and what we know of Jupiter, it would be a stretch, but some areas could even see water precipitation. Not as we know it in earth of course, but pretty freaking cool when you think of water on a star.
 
2011-10-18 02:19:38 PM
FTFA: Our sun is 109 times larger than the Earth

Misleading... the sun's diameter is about 100 times that of the earf's, but you could fit about 1,000,000 earf's inside the sun.

/welcome
 
2011-10-18 02:21:04 PM
indarwinsshadow: someahole Quote 2011-10-18 02:12:41 PM
Walker: #3. A Cold Star

I saw this on Doctor Who, but most of the episode was all in his head so even he wasn't sure if it's possible...or was he sure? It was a confusing episode.

Isn't a "cold star" usually just called a planet?

Small... check.
Cold enough to touch... check.
Not capable of sustaining nuclear fusion... check.

Planet.

Planet with enough gravity, even though it's the same size as mercury, to crush you into a lump the size of of a grain of sand....check.


So can any gas giant. Jupiter can produce metallic liquid hydrogen, and it's still a planet.
 
2011-10-18 02:24:01 PM
VY Canis Majoris

Hypergiant stars absolutely fascinate me. Just trying to imagine an object as big as they are makes my brain go inside-out and turn into pudding.
 
2011-10-18 02:25:15 PM
Uakronkid: List is fail without the Voorwerp.

That's Hanny's Voorweep to you, pal.

/I love that story.
//Best thing to ever come out of Queen.
 
2011-10-18 02:26:35 PM
I also love the fact that there could be rather large planets that we still don't know about in our solar system.

It's pretty much the case that our only real chance of finding something in the Oort cloud is just the luck of looking at a star as the planet traverses between it and us. Trying to detect it by measuring the perturbations of orbits won't work because the amount it could affect the orbits is less than we can accurately measure. (unlike closer or larger planets)

please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
2011-10-18 02:29:30 PM
StrangeQ: VY Canis Majoris

Hypergiant stars absolutely fascinate me. Just trying to imagine an object as big as they are makes my brain go inside-out and turn into pudding.


Then Newfound Blob should really pique your interest.

Space amazes me.
 
2011-10-18 02:30:46 PM
indarwinsshadow:
Planet with enough gravity, even though it's the same size as mercury, to crush you into a lump the size of of a grain of sand....check.


I missed the size of Mercury bit. That's pretty dense. Still I don't see how it can be a star if cannot burn at some point in it's lifespan. Are these things considered stars just because they're big (or dense) and they don't orbit anything?
 
2011-10-18 02:33:51 PM
someahole: Are these things considered stars just because they're big (or dense) and they don't orbit anything?

Apparently they form the same way stars do, but just stop at an earlier developmental stage.
 
2011-10-18 02:36:12 PM
Angry Buddha: FTFA: Our sun is 109 times larger than the Earth

Misleading... the sun's diameter is about 100 times that of the earf's, but you could fit about 1,000,000 earf's inside the sun.

/welcome


*ding ding ding* winner winner chicken dinner, and the follow on math is even worse..
 
2011-10-18 02:36:59 PM
Well not discovered in space...

i.imgur.com

This isn't a mistake or an error. This is spacetime itself bending. If that doesn't blow your mind I weep for science education.
 
2011-10-18 02:37:19 PM
Angry Buddha: FTFA: Our sun is 109 times larger than the Earth

Misleading... the sun's diameter is about 100 times that of the earf's, but you could fit about 1,000,000 earf's inside the sun.

/welcome


Thank you Buddha. That was a great illustration.
The way volume increases with diameter gets tough to figure in your head.

/ welcome to earf
 
2011-10-18 02:39:34 PM
GregoryD: Well not discovered in space...

[i.imgur.com image 640x480]

This isn't a mistake or an error. This is spacetime itself bending. If that doesn't blow your mind I weep for science education.


Is that gravitational lensing?
 
2011-10-18 02:41:14 PM
someahole: indarwinsshadow:
Planet with enough gravity, even though it's the same size as mercury, to crush you into a lump the size of of a grain of sand....check.

I missed the size of Mercury bit. That's pretty dense. Still I don't see how it can be a star if cannot burn at some point in it's lifespan. Are these things considered stars just because they're big (or dense) and they don't orbit anything?


stars orbit things too. our star (and entire solar system) orbit the earth

/sarcasm

really they orbit the giant blackhole at the center of the milky way.

the diamond planet was a star, and became a planet (i guess). the brown star started as a star, but has yet to acquire enough mass to ignite, which isn't to say it may not begin the fusion process in a few billion years after collecting enough matter from dust comets and asteroids. really i just don't know if they have a way to define it yet.
 
2011-10-18 02:42:16 PM
SomGuye: Angry Buddha: FTFA: Our sun is 109 times larger than the Earth

Misleading... the sun's diameter is about 100 times that of the earf's, but you could fit about 1,000,000 earf's inside the sun.

/welcome

Thank you Buddha. That was a great illustration.
The way volume increases with diameter gets tough to figure in your head.

/ welcome to earf
 
2011-10-18 02:43:48 PM
someahole: GregoryD: Well not discovered in space...

[i.imgur.com image 640x480]

This isn't a mistake or an error. This is spacetime itself bending. If that doesn't blow your mind I weep for science education.

Is that gravitational lensing?


Yep, I'm a dummy for not including what it was.. I was too busy thinking about it. :) thanks
 
2011-10-18 02:43:54 PM
SomGuye: Angry Buddha: FTFA: Our sun is 109 times larger than the Earth

Misleading... the sun's diameter is about 100 times that of the earf's, but you could fit about 1,000,000 earf's inside the sun.

/welcome

Thank you Buddha. That was a great illustration.
The way volume increases with diameter gets tough to figure in your head.

/ welcome to earf


Dammit
Anyway, the post was " (facepalm) I'm not going to write the equation out here>"
 
2011-10-18 02:45:52 PM
Holy crap, I apologise SomGuye I didnt read your comment correctly...
 
2011-10-18 02:46:01 PM
JohDHJ: ZoeNekros: #4. Lightning! (a blackhole that shoots off lightning bolts 1.5 times as large as the milky way)

Wait, lightning bigger than our entire galaxy? Someone needs to figure out a way to harness that energy1


Gonna need some long cables.
 
2011-10-18 02:46:10 PM
Mongo No.5: someahole: indarwinsshadow:
Planet with enough gravity, even though it's the same size as mercury, to crush you into a lump the size of of a grain of sand....check.

I missed the size of Mercury bit. That's pretty dense. Still I don't see how it can be a star if cannot burn at some point in it's lifespan. Are these things considered stars just because they're big (or dense) and they don't orbit anything?

stars orbit things too. our star (and entire solar system) orbit the earth

/sarcasm

really they orbit the giant blackhole at the center of the milky way.

the diamond planet was a star, and became a planet (i guess). the brown star started as a star, but has yet to acquire enough mass to ignite, which isn't to say it may not begin the fusion process in a few billion years after collecting enough matter from dust comets and asteroids. really i just don't know if they have a way to define it yet.


Maybe they need a term like planetoid for stars. Star-oid? I guess brown dwarf is better.
 
2011-10-18 02:48:18 PM
GregoryD: Well not discovered in space...

[i.imgur.com image 640x480]

This isn't a mistake or an error. This is spacetime itself bending. If that doesn't blow your mind I weep for science education.


Don't bullshiat me, I saw them bend spacetime all the time on Star Trek. FFS, if a TV show can do it, the god damned universe better be able to do it!
 
2011-10-18 02:51:34 PM
Caelistis: GregoryD: Well not discovered in space...

[i.imgur.com image 640x480]

This isn't a mistake or an error. This is spacetime itself bending. If that doesn't blow your mind I weep for science education.

Don't bullshiat me, I saw them bend spacetime all the time on Star Trek. FFS, if a TV show can do it, the god damned universe better be able to do it!


True. There's nothing you can't do by just saying "Make it so"... though sometimes you do need to reverse the polarity and reroute it through the secondary plasma relay.
 
2011-10-18 02:52:23 PM
bugontherug: StrangeQ: VY Canis Majoris

Hypergiant stars absolutely fascinate me. Just trying to imagine an object as big as they are makes my brain go inside-out and turn into pudding.

Then Newfound Blob should really pique your interest.

Space amazes me.


Yeah that was pretty cool too. It's all just so humbling. We really are insignificant specs in the grand scale of the universe.
 
2011-10-18 02:54:15 PM
someahole:
True. There's nothing you can't do by just saying "Make it so"... though sometimes you do need to reverse the polarity and reroute it through the secondary plasma relay.


Conduit, goddamnit! Plasma goes through conduits!

Wanna be nerds...
 
2011-10-18 02:54:49 PM
#6. A Planet Made of Diamond
#5. A Gigantic Rain Cloud (140 trillion times more than all our oceans)
#4. Lightning! (size of milkyway)
#3. A Cold Star (80 F)
#2. A Star 1,500 Times Bigger Than Our Sun
#1. The Gargantuan Blob from the Beginning of Time
 
2011-10-18 02:59:31 PM
It's stories like these that get me irritated. I would love to go out and explore all these types of things but not through a telescope. Makes me feel like a creepy neighbor guy spying on the neighborhood. I'd rather be the peeping tom looking through the window seeing what's up.

Space travel can't get here fast enough (I mean outside our solar system).
 
2011-10-18 03:00:02 PM
Caelistis: someahole:
True. There's nothing you can't do by just saying "Make it so"... though sometimes you do need to reverse the polarity and reroute it through the secondary plasma relay.

Conduit, goddamnit! Plasma goes through conduits!

Wanna be nerds...


The conduit's depolarized, we have to reroute through the EPS relay.
 
2011-10-18 03:00:34 PM
#9 - Cracked article contributors
 
2011-10-18 03:04:27 PM
Vien: It's stories like these that get me irritated. I would love to go out and explore all these types of things but not through a telescope. Makes me feel like a creepy neighbor guy spying on the neighborhood. I'd rather be the peeping tom looking through the window seeing what's up.

Space travel can't get here fast enough (I mean outside our solar system).


Space travel won't be fast enough. Unless warp speed or something else comes along that allows us to travel faster than light, we'll never get to anything. And the furthest objects we can observe are billions of years old, who know's what's there now.
 
2011-10-18 03:13:22 PM
NutznGum: Vien: It's stories like these that get me irritated. I would love to go out and explore all these types of things but not through a telescope. Makes me feel like a creepy neighbor guy spying on the neighborhood. I'd rather be the peeping tom looking through the window seeing what's up.

Space travel can't get here fast enough (I mean outside our solar system).

Space travel won't be fast enough. Unless warp speed or something else comes along that allows us to travel faster than light, we'll never get to anything. And the furthest objects we can observe are billions of years old, who know's what's there now.


Well, if you can accelerate to close enough to the speed of light, time slows down (relative to your frame of reference) to the point that you can travel anywhere in the galaxy in a human lifetime. The problem is finding the energy to get you going that fast.

That and shielding you from pretty much anything at that speed. Going that fast is essentially the same as taking a nap in a particle collider. I think there's also the issue that as your speed increases so does your mass, so you need to watch out not to rip apart where-ever you're going with the resulting gravity well.
 
2011-10-18 03:14:12 PM
NutznGum: Vien: It's stories like these that get me irritated. I would love to go out and explore all these types of things but not through a telescope. Makes me feel like a creepy neighbor guy spying on the neighborhood. I'd rather be the peeping tom looking through the window seeing what's up.

Space travel can't get here fast enough (I mean outside our solar system).

Space travel won't be fast enough. Unless warp speed or something else comes along that allows us to travel faster than light, we'll never get to anything. And the furthest objects we can observe are billions of years old, who know's what's there now.


And this is what makes right now probably one of the most exciting, and most depressing, times simultaneously. The knowledge of all that is out there, and where we are, and what we are, and the absolute lack of ability to get there, or affect anything at all.
 
2011-10-18 03:14:19 PM
someahole: Isn't a "cold star" usually just called a planet?

Small... check.
Cold enough to touch... check.
Not capable of sustaining nuclear fusion... check.

Planet.


Tell that to Pluto.
 
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