A Few Weeks, But Not To The Galaxies
Why can't I cruise to the Andromeda Galaxy instead of New England and Canada? Well, for one thing, it’s too far away. Boston, where the ship leaves in 17 weeks, is but a six+ hour ride on the bus and a leisurely (and I mean leisurely) two days on a luxury cruise ship to Canada. Even the bus isn’t really all that bad.
The Andromeda Galaxy, fairly close to us as intergalactic distances go, is 2 million light-years away. That is, if one of their stars blows up, the light from the explosion would take two million years to show up on the end of my telescope. We don’t travel that fast, so showing up there is just impossible.
Still, I’d like to take a trip there. Maybe after I unpack and get settled in heaven I can ask for a trip around the universe at some sort of warp speed. As a living person on earth, w.s. 10 would be insufficient for this trip: The Andromeda Galaxy would be very close, but still 655 years away, too long for us. A lightyear would be 2 ¾ hours in that case.
At 3000 times the speed of light, we are really moving. But on my imagined trip, this would still be quite a long time. Of course, in the afterlife we have all eternity, which is endless. Pack a lunch, take off for a thousand years and still be on time for supper. I could presumably visit some of the galaxies on the very edge of the universe.
Would I run into Galileo, Copernicus, Einstein out there? Could we make arrangements to meet on some distant galaxy for a mug of tea and crumpets?
The Andromeda Galaxy, fairly close to us as intergalactic distances go, is 2 million light-years away. That is, if one of their stars blows up, the light from the explosion would take two million years to show up on the end of my telescope. We don’t travel that fast, so showing up there is just impossible.
Still, I’d like to take a trip there. Maybe after I unpack and get settled in heaven I can ask for a trip around the universe at some sort of warp speed. As a living person on earth, w.s. 10 would be insufficient for this trip: The Andromeda Galaxy would be very close, but still 655 years away, too long for us. A lightyear would be 2 ¾ hours in that case.
At 3000 times the speed of light, we are really moving. But on my imagined trip, this would still be quite a long time. Of course, in the afterlife we have all eternity, which is endless. Pack a lunch, take off for a thousand years and still be on time for supper. I could presumably visit some of the galaxies on the very edge of the universe.
Would I run into Galileo, Copernicus, Einstein out there? Could we make arrangements to meet on some distant galaxy for a mug of tea and crumpets?
posted by Tom Carten at 2:43 AM
1 Comments:
That'd be neat! Can't you just see yourself fartin' around up there, floating like an angel, checking out to see if any ferns were growing there, possible stop for tea at the famous Asteroid Tea Haus (German tea made form discarded leaves inthe Reisling vignobles) on the east end of the Milky Way. Keep away a from the North side of the Way, called the North Crescent, it's tough over there.
Tell you what, let me know if fishing is any good there, how 'bout it?
CJV
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