>> ^BicycleRepairMan:

Fascinating, but not very plausible.. to make this, you'd have to collect several million earthlike planets from all over the galaxy, somehow tow them to this star, bring them all into the same, stable orbit, and then somehow splice them together, sort of like a stone arch falling into place. How you could keep gravity from pulling them together to form gas-giants or even small stars is yet another matter. overall, with superb planet-towing spaceships and all, I'd estimated the task to take several hundred million years and probably fail. I'd think I'd settle for populating the galaxy first.


I've read the whole series, many times and according to Niven the Ringworld was constructed as a filled shell. Planets, planetoids and asteroid belts from neighboring systems were broken down and through a never explained process, transmuted into a unique alloy called Scrith. That shell was then contoured like a bas-relief, bulges for oceans, depressions for mountains and filled with earth, water, oxygen, plants etc.. Still a massive undertaking to be sure, esp. at sub-light speeds but not as bad as assembling a giant jigsaw.

Sub-light speed technology is assumed as any civilization capable of FTL travel would find it far easier to terraform and inhabit existing worlds.

>> ^spawnflagger:

Carl Sagan said almost the same thing 30 years ago in 1 of the episodes of Cosmos, but instead of caffeinated-arm-flailing-rant format, he said it slow and concisely, albeit slightly monotone. Because of the cold war, and the man-will-destroy-itself-in-nuclear-fallout attitude of the time, he was not so optimistic about finding other societies, because he imagined other societies would do similar, as in they would kill themselves shortly after coming up with radio and nuclear technology.
There was an update to the series a few years later, and he was much more optimistic that humanity would not destroy itself.
Also, it's not likely that any of the early radio waves we sent out will be "readable" once they reach a considerable distance away, so it's irrelevant whether they watch TV or not.

Even without the immediate threat of Nuclear War we still have plenty of time and options to kill ourselves off with. We haven't even travelled to our nearest planet, I think its going to be a while before we ever really explore the Solar System, never mind the rest of the Galaxy. I think if Humans ever do survive that long, if we somehow manage to obtain the wisdom to match our technology and dodge planet killing asteroids, then we will probably have less in common with them than we do with our fishy ancestors.

As for extraterrestrial life, there is a fair chance it exists, or has existed or will exist. I think its not too much of a stretch to imagine intelligent life. I don't think we'll ever find them, not without faster than light travel. And space isn't just vast in 3 dimensions, its pretty fast in a the 4th as well. We have existed for the tiniest sliver of time, we've had technology for a tiny sliver of that...We have to survive for a very very long time before we are anything but a tiny fragment of history.

The *music is 'Transgenic' by Trifonic (http://www.amazon.com/Emergence-Trifonic/dp/B0013MTJUQ/)>> ^kceaton1:

Anybody know what the ambient music in the background is? I've looked at the main post on youtube and there is no mention.

Damn, Asteroid Belt! You scary!

There are a number of 3D projection videos here, but this one might be the best I've seen.
*Music: "Around The Bend," by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

"The game is smart enough that if everyone leaves, it will pause and wait for someone to join."

Dude, if you can code a cross-platform Asteroids game where the desktop server acting as a kind of broadcast booth view feeds info down to mobile phones playing in first person, I'm not shocked that you know to pause the game when everyone quits.

Don't stop giving your opinion, I won't (= cool.).


>> ^vaporlock:

I should have known better than to give an option. Sending a probe to an asteroid, landing, taking off again, and then crashing it into the skies above Australia is definitely cool...

I should have known better than to give an option. Sending a probe to an asteroid, landing, taking off again, and then crashing it into the skies above Australia is definitely cool...

I want to add something to this comment. The estimates that celestial body will pass through the keyhole are 1 and 250,000. Not likely but still enough to warrant a good looking at. Perhaps when DeGrasse made this video it was still consensus that it was a 1 in 37 chance of passing into the Keyhole. That doesn't seem to be the case now. But that's not to say it can't happen, it's highly unlikely.

Astronomers have identified an asteroid named Apophis that was once estimated to have a 2.7% (1 in 37) chance of striking the earth in 2029. Further observations and revisions of the estimated path of the asteroid have resulted in an estimated 1 in 250,000 chance (0.0004%) of impact in 2036.[1][2] Apophis is estimated to be as large as 1,300 feet (400 m) across, and could cause millions of casualties if it were to hit Earth.[3] Astronomers think that Apophis will most likely miss a 2,000-foot (610 m) wide keyhole in 2029 which, if passed through, would cause it to hit Earth in 2036.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_keyhole#The_Apophis_Deflection

Ok, ok, ok. 2029 it may thread the keyhole, in which the next time it comes around 2036 would be BOOM! Excellent I can't wait. Shit that means I'll be about 50 years old! Fuck! A lot can happen between now and then.

On Friday, April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass Earth within the orbits of geosynchronous communication satellites.[10] It will return for another close Earth approach in 2036.

Precovery observations from March 15, 2004 were identified on December 27, and an improved orbit was computed.[11] Radar astrometry further refined the orbit. The 2029 pass will actually be much closer than the first predictions, but the uncertainty is such that an impact is ruled out. Similarly, the pass on April 13, 2036 carries little risk of an impact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

It's traveling at 30.728 km/s. Cars generally travel at Km/h. That's about 20 miles per second, and about 32187 Meters per second. If the speed of sound is 343.174 meters per second, then 32187/343.174 would mean that Apophis is traveling at 93 times the speed of sound. Which is just a comparison because things in space tend to have different physics than things inside an atmosphere.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=speed+of+sound
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=20+miles+per+second
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=32187%2F343.174

This is a great comment. You should add it to the original vid so it gets seen.

In reply to this comment by NordlichReiter:
I'm pretty sure I made a comment on this already. So it's now 2029? Last I checked it was 2036. Ah, Wikipedia has conflicting data.

Ok, ok, ok. 2029 it may thread the keyhole, in which the next time it comes around 2036 would be BOOM! Excellent I can't wait. Shit that means I'll be about 50 years old! Fuck! A lot can happen between now and then.

On Friday, April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass Earth within the orbits of geosynchronous communication satellites.[10] It will return for another close Earth approach in 2036.

Precovery observations from March 15, 2004 were identified on December 27, and an improved orbit was computed.[11] Radar astrometry further refined the orbit. The 2029 pass will actually be much closer than the first predictions, but the uncertainty is such that an impact is ruled out. Similarly, the pass on April 13, 2036 carries little risk of an impact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

It's traveling at 30.728 km/s. Cars generally travel at Km/h. That's about 20 miles per second, and about 32187 Meters per second. If the speed of sound is 343.174 meters per second, then 32187/343.174 would mean that Apophis is traveling at 93 times the speed of sound. Which is just a comparison because things in space tend to have different physics than things inside an atmosphere.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=speed+of+sound
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=20+miles+per+second
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=32187%2F343.174

>> ^westy:

The title makes no sence
this is not a Live video
and if anything surly any recordings of spacial fanomanon were live at the time they happend and were recorded.


Have you ever seen "live" concert footage? It's the same concept here, except with planets.

>> ^westy:

The title makes no sence
this is not a Live video
and if anything surly any recordings of spacial fanomanon were live at the time they happend and were recorded.


YOU make no sense. All "live" videos suffer from this effect, whether they be "live" or recorded. Even if you're watching it on TV, you experience the .001 (or however many) second delay and technically lose the "live" effect.

This video was recorded "live" and is a huge HUGE achievement among astronomers, both amateur and professional. We stare at the heavens for most of our lives and hope desperately for the chance to see something like this. Seeing it is like winning the lottery. It's amazing.

>> ^westy:

The title makes no sence
this is not a Live video
and if anything surly any recordings of spacial fanomanon were live at the time they happend and were recorded.


No i think that's what al pacino says in Devil's Advocate - I'M A FAN O' MAN!

Westy your comments really drag me down. This is such a vacuous point but overshadowed by your spelling - which would make david mitchell cry - i hope you don't suffer from some condition which causes it, i wouldn't want to be like that, but it looks like a lack of effort. Sometimes you make posts which i genuinely can't understand.

Anyway - in your eyes, NOTHING is live, because light will ALWAYS take time to reflect from something happening and reach your eyes, or the camera, or whatever else. Even if it's a billionth of a billionth of a second, that's still a delay. 8 microseconds, 8 minutes, is anything live? Even your senses aren't live, they take time to fire electrical impulses around your body.

This IS live. But before i got on my rant-horse, i was about to say i know 12 year old whizz kids who could manufacture a more realistic looking impact than this real impact

>> ^quantumushroom:

Neat comparison Retro! I didn't realize Uranus was that much smaller than Jupiter.


URanus isn't THAT much smaller... *rimshot

She was also unaware of how amazing her performance was when they recorded it. She came out of the booth and apologized. Just goes to show, you are not always a good judge of your own work.

In regards to the asteroid, videos like this make me want to start making Vaults around the world. Of course, Lunar and Mars colonization would be good too. It freaks me out to know that every living thing we know of could still be wiped out if the Earth was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We need to have some backups.