http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap101009.html
There are several hundred thousand stars in this ancient cluster which is about 50,000 light years away and I did the arithmetic which says there is better than one star per cubic light year which has to be at least ten times more dense than around our neck of the woods. These stars are reported to be almost twice as old as our sun so it would be interesting speculation to think there may be intelligent life in that cluster somewhere. The question I have is what would the sky look like to astronomers living in the middle of that cluster? Would the sky have holes in it enough to suss out the galaxy we all live in or would the density of the stars there prevent a larger view of the universe. If you could not see the outer stars they may develop a limited understanding of their place in the universe. What do you think?
Originally posted by zeeblebotDepends on the spectrum of the main stars. If they are like our sun, there would be maybe a lot of UV but not much X ray or cosmic ray stuff. I sure would like to put a probe in the middle of it and look around. 10 billion years old. If life could exist there, it would be 5 billion years ahead of life here. Time enough for entire planets to blow up and come back, eh.
a radiation hell
Originally posted by sonhouseThe part of the undestanding of the universe for people living in a place of the universe like that interests me.
If you could not see the outer stars they may develop a limited understanding of their place in the universe. What do you think?
We too live in a place where understanding of galaxies came quite 'late'. We see our own galaxy as a streak of light over the sky. It was a leap to realize that this was our galaxy seen from within, that other spiral nebulae actually was galaxies like our own galaxy.
What if life on Earth never get out of water due to radiation from space. One specie got intelligence. What would their scientific community think about the universe?
Or if Venus could harbour intelligent life, always covered with dense clouds. What would their scientific community think about the universe?
Originally posted by FabianFnasOr Titan, which also has thick clouds and a better chance of life.
The part of the undestanding of the universe for people living in a place of the universe like that interests me.
We too live in a place where understanding of galaxies came quite 'late'. We see our own galaxy as a streak of light over the sky. It was a leap to realize that this was our galaxy seen from within, that other spiral nebulae actually was ga ...[text shortened]... ays covered with dense clouds. What would their scientific community think about the universe?
Here is a link to an article about titan.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101008105847.htm
Originally posted by lauseyEasy, this one.
How did you calculate that? 😛
Every life we know of (our one) has taken 4(-ish) billion of years from it first formed until now. Another planet five(-ish) billion of years older than ours, is 5(-sh) billion of years ahead of us in its evolution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trullion:_Alastor_2262
Trullion: Alastor 2262 (1973) is a science fiction novel by Jack Vance first published by Ballantine Books. It is one of three books set in the Alastor Cluster, ‘a whorl of thirty thousand stars in an irregular volume twenty to thirty light-years in diameter’. Three thousand of the star systems are inhabited by five trillion humans, ruled by the mostly hands-off, laissez-faire Connatic, who occasionally, in the manner of Harun al-Rashid of The Thousand and One Nights, goes among his people in disguise.
Originally posted by zeeblebotYou could have a heck of an interstellar civilization in such a cluster, where everyone is within 30 or less light years away. Even sub light speed ships could manage that. If we had spacecraft capable of .5c, Alpha Centauri would be less than ten years away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trullion:_Alastor_2262
Trullion: Alastor 2262 (1973) is a science fiction novel by Jack Vance first published by Ballantine Books. It is one of three books set in the Alastor Cluster, ‘a whorl of thirty thousand stars in an irregular volume twenty to thirty light-years in diameter’. Three thousand of the star systems are inh ...[text shortened]... the manner of Harun al-Rashid of The Thousand and One Nights, goes among his people in disguise.
I wonder if a scifi or science artist has tried a rendition of what it would look like, with some degree of accuracy, to be within such a cluster, the starfield at night.
Would the local stars overwhelm say, Andromeda galaxy?