Astronomy fascinates me, but it baffles me at the same time.
We are told that the light from a star has taken so many million years to reach us, because that star is millions of light-years away. How can they tell?
Surely, in order to know how long the light takes to reach us, they must know the distance to the star. To use the speed of light to calculate the distance, they must know how long the light has taken to reach us. One answer derives from the other, so one value must be known before the other can be calculated. Where do these distances come from?
The Voyager space probes are about to leave the solar system. Wouldn't it be funny if, instead of soaring into empty space, they ran smack into a big black wall with little holes in it?
8 comments:
Or happen to sail through one of those holes and discover....what?
Perhaps... your brain? Or is that too much too hope for?
Remember the holes were yours. You sent the tiny ship through, not I. But you are right. If there is a brain to be discovered here, it would certainly have to be mine.
Then they must be very small holes indeed.
Positively miniscule.
Rom! youve more important things to do right now than needle Americans!
Silence, woman. Remember your place. Besides, I'm not needling them, I am patiently trying to educate them. It's uphill work.
Come on Rom. There's work to do. Don't forget you have that meeting with the group exploring orbs today. Is that why your so grumpy?
And then there's our lunch with Imogen. That should cheer you up.
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