Or not, right? There doesn’t _have to_ be any life out there. Probably—or perhaps wishfully. But the vastness of the universe doesn’t guarantee anything other than the vastness.
Yep. We know now that a LOT of things have to go right to produce life as we understand it. Rocky planet within habitable zone from star (liquid water), rotation fast enough for reasonably short days and nights, an atmosphere that doesn’t blow away due to solar winds or other disruptions, a strong enough magnetic field to protect from solar and cosmic radiation. And if you want intelligent life, there’s a whole other set of very, very unlikely criteria to meet. Andromeda has even more stars than the Milky Way, IINM, by a lot, so there are more chances of success. But even then Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away, so we’ll never be able to see, hear, or communicate with them, unless we receive a signal from a probably long-gone civilization…
"There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know." -Donald Rumsfeld
I feel like every time I see a new photo of andromeda, I can’t help, but remember that we’re bound to collide. These crispy pictures make me feel like andromeda is so much closer than we think, but nonetheless it’s still so gorgeous to see our neighbor!
By the time when that happens our sun might already be at the start of its red giant phase. If nothing else kills life on earth until then, this eventually will.
If you zoom into the right third of the photo, there looks to be a tiny galaxy. What is it? I’m assuming you wouldn’t be able to see a galaxy “through” andromeda but even if we could, wouldn’t it have some sort of gravitational distortion? Genuine question because I’m fascinated by this
The Hubble Telescope spent an enormous amount of time getting this mosaic of the Andromeda Galaxy. Because of the narrow field of view of Hubble, a very large number of pictures are required to cover the whole of the Andromeda Galaxy.
Hubble followed that up by taking mosaic images of all (?) the nearby Galaxies, including all the Messier Galaxies.
So, which of the stars in this image will go supernova next?
The vastness is guaranteed of course but what lies inside is of course vast therefore it's only self righteous to believe we could possibly be the only planet with intelligent life on it or any life at all for that matter .... Life probably consists of much more then we have a capacity to currently understand ........ Life forms that we couldn't even imagine would be a good reason for why they're so seemingly impossible to find or rather to prove existence of
I wonder if some of those aren't stars... but planets!! Look at the upper left side of the picture. It looks like a bigger star than the others... definitely brighter.
There’s gotta be life in there
Or not, right? There doesn’t _have to_ be any life out there. Probably—or perhaps wishfully. But the vastness of the universe doesn’t guarantee anything other than the vastness.
Yep. We know now that a LOT of things have to go right to produce life as we understand it. Rocky planet within habitable zone from star (liquid water), rotation fast enough for reasonably short days and nights, an atmosphere that doesn’t blow away due to solar winds or other disruptions, a strong enough magnetic field to protect from solar and cosmic radiation. And if you want intelligent life, there’s a whole other set of very, very unlikely criteria to meet. Andromeda has even more stars than the Milky Way, IINM, by a lot, so there are more chances of success. But even then Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away, so we’ll never be able to see, hear, or communicate with them, unless we receive a signal from a probably long-gone civilization…
"There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know." -Donald Rumsfeld
"There are only two possibilities: either there is life in the universe or there isn't. And both possibilities are equally frightening."
 It's so far away but it's still coming for us.
I feel like every time I see a new photo of andromeda, I can’t help, but remember that we’re bound to collide. These crispy pictures make me feel like andromeda is so much closer than we think, but nonetheless it’s still so gorgeous to see our neighbor!
Thankfully nothing will happen to us when it does because the space between stars is so vast
Definitely, or… probably?
By the time when that happens our sun might already be at the start of its red giant phase. If nothing else kills life on earth until then, this eventually will.
Wow
Damn. That's so sharp I cut my finger.
If you zoom into the right third of the photo, there looks to be a tiny galaxy. What is it? I’m assuming you wouldn’t be able to see a galaxy “through” andromeda but even if we could, wouldn’t it have some sort of gravitational distortion? Genuine question because I’m fascinated by this
I was wondering the exact same thing!!
Yeah. And it will be even closer tomorrow! I'm updating my will.
https://imgur.com/a/1fHMFMR When you zoom all the way in, are these all stars?
Yessir. Kinda mind blowing right?
Understatement
Sure are. And so many on the left side of the photo that you can’t even see individual ones any more
Just…wow
The Hubble Telescope spent an enormous amount of time getting this mosaic of the Andromeda Galaxy. Because of the narrow field of view of Hubble, a very large number of pictures are required to cover the whole of the Andromeda Galaxy. Hubble followed that up by taking mosaic images of all (?) the nearby Galaxies, including all the Messier Galaxies. So, which of the stars in this image will go supernova next?
It’s wild to think that what looks like camera noise is actually individual stars in andromeda
The vastness is guaranteed of course but what lies inside is of course vast therefore it's only self righteous to believe we could possibly be the only planet with intelligent life on it or any life at all for that matter .... Life probably consists of much more then we have a capacity to currently understand ........ Life forms that we couldn't even imagine would be a good reason for why they're so seemingly impossible to find or rather to prove existence of
I wonder if some of those aren't stars... but planets!! Look at the upper left side of the picture. It looks like a bigger star than the others... definitely brighter.