What a brilliant communicator Chris is ..engaging,funny ,irreverent ..his lectures are fantastically entertaining. Thanks Chris

it worked and it was delicate. the analogy

Chris joined us for a Q&A session as part of our new podcast 'Any Further Questions?' to answer all the unanswered questions we had during this lecture. Listen to it on all major podcast providers from Monday 25th September!

Mind blowing!

We love Chris

In addition to repeated statements of how big it all is, which of course is true enough, I would also like to see presentations on how empty it is. The speaker glanced at that with distances between stars, but there is also the emptiness of atoms and molecules, and whatever there is between the Plank scale and protons. If inflationary theories are correct, there also must be incredible distances between each bubble.

@chrislintott1

7 ай бұрын

More cosmology in lecture six, I think. I like the fact that if you travelled to the edge of the observable universe from the top of the Earth's atmosphere with your hand outstretched to catch whatever you encountered, you'd be lucky if you got two hydrogen atoms...

Patrick Moore is smiling.

@aethellstan

Ай бұрын

weird i know but i still miss him when i watch sky at night. i still remember various episodes towards the end when he woud say every now and again "but i won't be around to see it" when talking about the various probes etc popping out to planets.

If the entire mass of the planet was formed of grains of sand that number would be of the same order of magnitude as the estimates of the number of stars in the observable universe. So despite lacking precise numbers we're probably safe with that sars/grains thing. 😀

Thank you for this eloquent discussion. I like to ponder rhat maybe each galaxy is just a molecule in the make up of that cosmic used car lot inflatable waving its arms...

@BigDaddy-yp4mi

2 ай бұрын

Wacky inflatable flailing arm man!!

😊

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

@JJONNYREPP

8 ай бұрын

Island Universes: Discovering Galaxies Beyond the Milky Way 1641pm 14.9.23 and that, my friend, is the threat.................................. no need to cover it (alien life) as the various news media agencies are having a news conference with reference to that with NASA... or what allegedly passes for NASA. nice to hear Chris Lintott, on occasion, without him being censored by the attendant religious bodies hellbent on censoring the facts of the matter... speaking as another billy no mates type (of the male persuasion) he's basically talking about background noise, temperature and distance. which is something which you need to be come to terms with.. this vastness... as there are surely other aspects of the universe which need to be clarified. you're the metaphorical educated carrots and yer coming up with nothing new. i am learning nothing. learnt far more off my own bat... he's basically encompassed the entire back catalogue of the sky at night tv show in one chat.

@chrislintott1

8 ай бұрын

That may have been in my mind...

@JJONNYREPP

8 ай бұрын

@@chrislintott1 Island Universes: Discovering Galaxies Beyond the Milky Way 1731pm 14.9.23 !!??....!? and that, my friend, is the summation of the universe and all that we (need to) know... a vague notion regards something not being quite right out there or we're not being kept abreast of the matter at hand... it is another man's passion (your subject) but does concern us all.... i was wondering if his nibs, CL, will be chomping at the bit to cadge a lift on one of those private rockets being utilized to cast people into near space.....?

@matthawkins4579

2 ай бұрын

Gotta love a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" quote.

Not only are there more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on Earth, but if our sun was a grain of sand, then our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, would be a a grain of sand on another beach about 30 kilometers away.

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

Would it be useful to use New Horizons for parallax somehow, since it would have a much longer baseline than the 2AU available from Earth over 6 months?

@chrislintott1

8 ай бұрын

I think you probably could; what a fun idea! Gaia would beat both though

@GreshamCollege

8 ай бұрын

Hi! Thank you for the question! Chris gives a more detailed answer in the next episode of our podcast 'Any Further Questions?' which will be released on the 25th September.

What a time to be an astronomer, and even an interested layman. Of course, the same is true in most disciplines. Sadly, while science and technology are thrilling to many, we see a frightened backlash delving deep into religion, cults, and pseudoscience.

14:50 Really? Let's meet for a pint!

He says the universe (beyond the observable) is big^big but does not say it is infinite. But is there any evidence that it is not infinite?

@chrislintott1

8 ай бұрын

I think the best answer is there’s nothing we’ve seen that suggests it isn’t. More on this, maybe, in lecture 6.

"A single island universe" - this was thought up by a native of Britain, probably ?

Space isn't big. We are incredibly small.

@mellertid

2 ай бұрын

The Universe is big compared to anything. We are only small compared to some things.

Not an ordinary star! It is not a Red Dwarf Star.

@spacelemur7955

8 ай бұрын

The meaning of the word 'ordinary' is not restricted to 'the most common'.

Everything is nebula. Circular arguement...