The Lemon Fool

On August 17th, this year, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) recorded a signal from a collision of two super-dense neutron stars.

Big deal. Isn't that exactly what these space boffins with all their high-tech gear supposedly should be doing? So when did this collision actually happen? After all, it was in space, so it does have to arrive here on earth. Perhaps August 16th? July 16th? January 16th? January 16th 2016?.....?.....?

Well actually no. Not 2000 anything, nor 1000 anything but 130,000,000, yes that is one hundred and thirty million light years ago and it's boom has just arrived chez nous!

Unfortunately my pin brain is unable to comprend time of this magnitude so Here is a link to an interesting read for any of you Einsteins out there who might like to get their head around it. That is, of course, if you weren't already aware of it.

panamagold wrote:Not 2000 anything, nor 1000 anything but 130,000,000, yes that is one hundred and thirty million light years ago

Slight correction, you mixed up time and distance units. Either "one hundred and thirty million light years away" or "one hundred and thirty million years ago".

https://xkcd.com/386/

Scott.

swill453 wrote:Slight correction, you mixed up time and distance units. Either "one hundred and thirty million light years away" or "one hundred and thirty million years ago".

Scott.

I seem to recollect mentioning my 'pin brain' in the op.

Now, tell me, how long will it take for a boom to travel from one hundred and thirty million light years away? I think in miles that could equate to 764.4 million trillion miles.

panamagold wrote:

swill453 wrote:Slight correction, you mixed up time and distance units. Either "one hundred and thirty million light years away" or "one hundred and thirty million years ago".

Scott.

I seem to recollect mentioning my 'pin brain' in the op.

Now, tell me, how long will it take for a boom to travel from one hundred and thirty million light years away? I think in miles that could equate to 764.4 million trillion miles.

Err... 130 Million years!

Something tells me you haven't quite got to grips with this.

XFool wrote:

panamagold wrote:

swill453 wrote:Slight correction, you mixed up time and distance units. Either "one hundred and thirty million light years away" or "one hundred and thirty million years ago".

Scott.

I seem to recollect mentioning my 'pin brain' in the op.

Now, tell me, how long will it take for a boom to travel from one hundred and thirty million light years away? I think in miles that could equate to 764.4 million trillion miles.

Err... 130 Million years!

Something tells me you haven't quite got to grips with this.

Err... I think he is talking about the sonic boom...which of course cannot occur in the vacuum of space...so the real answer is never.

John

panamagold wrote:Well actually no. Not 2000 anything, nor 1000 anything but 130,000,000, yes that is one hundred and thirty million years ago and it's boom has just arrived chez nous!

Unfortunately my pin brain is unable to comprend time of this magnitude.........

Is the above edited edition correct? Have I now got it.

Oh, and how does my 764.4 million trillion miles stack up for distance travelled? It seems like a helluva long way!

panamagold wrote:

panamagold wrote:Well actually no. Not 2000 anything, nor 1000 anything but 130,000,000, yes that is one hundred and thirty million years ago and it's boom has just arrived chez nous!

Unfortunately my pin brain is unable to comprend time of this magnitude.........

Is the above edited edition correct? Have I now got it.

Seems so.

panamagold wrote:Oh, and how does my 764.4 million trillion miles stack up for distance travelled? It seems like a helluva long way!

Let's see.

130 million light years away. So, using a rough figure of light travels at 186,200 miles per second, then in one year light would travel:

365.25 x 24 x 60 x 60 x 186,200 miles.

So in 130 million years it should travel 130 x 10^6 x 365.25 x 24 x 60 x 60 x 186.2 x 10^3 miles = 7.64 x 10^11 x 10^6 x 10^3 or

7.64 x 10^20 miles.

XFool wrote:

panamagold wrote:Oh, and how does my 764.4 million trillion miles stack up for distance travelled? It seems like a helluva long way!

Let's see.

130 million light years away. So, using a rough figure of light travels at 186,200 miles per second, then in one year light would travel:

365.25 x 24 x 60 x 60 x 186,200 miles.

So in 130 million years it should travel 130 x 10^6 x 365.25 x 24 x 60 x 60 x 186.2 x 10^3 miles = 7.64 x 10^11 x 10^6 x 10^3 or

7.64 x 10^20 miles.

Much obliged, XFool, for your time and response. It would seem I'm not the total numb nuts I imagined. The thing about space that really freaks me is infinity. Err, where does it stop?

panamagold wrote:7.64 x 10^20 miles.

Much obliged, XFool, for your time and response. It would seem I'm not the total numb nuts I imagined. The thing about space that really freaks me is infinity. Err, where does it stop?

In space terms 7.64 x 10^20 miles is a mere hop and a skip. We're just very very very tiny.



GS

And the bit that has been getting the space scientists excited is that the light from the event arrived 1.7 seconds later, proving that gravety is propagated at the speed of light.

Einstein rules, OK?

Slarti

Radio 5 had some rent-a-scientist on this morning to talk about this. The "sound" was an interesting "chirp" which increased in frequency as the rotation of the two neutron stars speeded up as they came together. Rachel Burden thought it sounded like you should have a cigarette afterwards...

He went on to talk about infinity. The number series of all numbers starting at 1 is infinite (he said). The number series of even numbers is also infinite, but is exactly half the size of the infinite all numbers series.

DM

dionaeamuscipula wrote:He went on to talk about infinity. The number series of all numbers starting at 1 is infinite (he said). The number series of even numbers is also infinite, but is exactly half the size of the infinite all numbers series.

DM

Hmm, something funny here. The size of those two sets is actually the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countable_set

What time was he on?

GS

GoSeigen wrote:

dionaeamuscipula wrote:He went on to talk about infinity. The number series of all numbers starting at 1 is infinite (he said). The number series of even numbers is also infinite, but is exactly half the size of the infinite all numbers series.

DM

Hmm, something funny here. The size of those two sets is actually the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countable_set

What time was he on?

GS

About 8.25 on Radio 5 live. I may of course be misquoting him.

DM

dionaeamuscipula wrote:
About 8.25 on Radio 5 live. I may of course be misquoting him.

DM

Thanks DM. Ha ha, listened to it, it was the professor who got it wrong! Hope it was a slip of the tongue, and not built into his models...

GS

Here is a picture of the visible part of the event

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171023.html

An interesting way of looking at what this means

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171024.html

Some explanations of the sources of gravitational waves

http://www.ligo.org/science/GW-Sources.php

Enjoy!

Escalader