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Traveler's Guide to the Planets

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flashiv:
I saw the ones on Jupiter and Saturn and parts of the Mars, Moon and Mercury/Venus one.  Very very interesting.
Disclaimer : My original major in college was astronomy.  ;D

Hoopz:
Since Neptune was discovered in 1846, it's made ONE orbit around the sun.  Amazing...

Article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/neptunefinallymakesfirstorbitaroundthesunsincediscoveryin1846

JeepMonkey:
I have seen most of the episodes.  It is a good show.  I can't wat until we get to the point where we are sending probes through all the feet of ice to the liquid parts of moons to see what is there.

shmokes:

--- Quote from: Hoopz on August 19, 2010, 11:29:34 am ---Since Neptune was discovered in 1846, it's made ONE orbit around the sun.  Amazing...

Article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/neptunefinallymakesfirstorbitaroundthesunsincediscoveryin1846

--- End quote ---

Yeah . . . I read a book called a A Short History of the World, or something like that and the guy talked about how people generally don't comprehend how big the solar system is because it's impossible to make a representative scale model.  Like if you put Mercury one milimeter away from the Sun, Neptune would still be miles away on your scale.  Or something like that.  He also illustrated the enormous size of our solar system in this way:  The fastest space ship we have ever built is on it's way to Pluto, a trip that will take it ten years to complete.  If it then continues past Pluto and flies to the edge of our solar system (not to another solar system, mind you, just to the end of ours) it would take the ship another 10,000 years.

So . . . yeah . . . unfortunately we're not going to be flying to any Alien planets in our lifetimes (or ever)  :(

Frigo:

--- Quote from: shmokes on August 21, 2010, 12:25:03 pm ---
--- Quote from: Hoopz on August 19, 2010, 11:29:34 am ---Since Neptune was discovered in 1846, it's made ONE orbit around the sun.  Amazing...

Article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/neptunefinallymakesfirstorbitaroundthesunsincediscoveryin1846

--- End quote ---

Yeah . . . I read a book called a A Short History of the World, or something like that and the guy talked about how people generally don't comprehend how big the solar system is because it's impossible to make a representative scale model.  Like if you put Mercury one milimeter away from the Sun, Neptune would still be miles away on your scale.  Or something like that.  He also illustrated the enormous size of our solar system in this way:  The fastest space ship we have ever built is on it's way to Pluto, a trip that will take it ten years to complete.  If it then continues past Pluto and flies to the edge of our solar system (not to another solar system, mind you, just to the end of ours) it would take the ship another 10,000 years.

So . . . yeah . . . unfortunately we're not going to be flying to any Alien planets in our lifetimes (or ever)  :(

--- End quote ---

It's called A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I've had the audio book for a few years now, and it's a nice high level overview of the how  we came to be. The first part talks about the creation and size of the solar system (the part you mentioned), and it's one of my favorite parts in the book. Good stuff.  :cheers:

On a related note, I caught two episodes of Through the Wormhole on the Science Channel last night, and it talked about time travel and how space and time can coexist, yet at the same time be independently manipulated. Another high level overview, this time of quantum physics, but it was pretty entertaining, nonetheless.

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