The New Biggest Structure in the Universe Is Too Large to Comprehend

The New Biggest Structure in the Universe Is Too Large to Comprehend:

An international team of scientists has discovered the biggest known structure in the universe—and it would take a vehicle traveling at the speed of light 4 billion years to cross it. The structure is a large quasar group—a collection of supermassive black holes which form a single, massive structure—and it is huge. It’s made up of seventy-three quasars, and is over four billion light-years across at its widest point. For some perspective, that distance is 1,600 times larger than the distance between our galaxy, the Milky Way, and its nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.

Mind blown.

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/40593500911

discoverynews: White House Rejects ‘Death Star’ Petition In a...

discoverynews:

White House Rejects ‘Death Star’ Petition

In a wonderful White House statement titled “This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For,” Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, responded to a petition submitted to the White House’s “We the People” website. The petition was created on Nov. 14, 2012, urging the President to “secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.” Read more…

(The White House may be against blowing up planets, but where does that leave Pluto?)

This is an awesome response from them

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/40327084066

discoverynews: wildlydistorted: What does it feel like to fly...

discoverynews:

wildlydistorted:

What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?

A time lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. Beginning over the Pacific Ocean and continuing over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica.

Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the Earth’s ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite and the stars of our galaxy.

ohmegurd. such a cool photoset. must reblog.

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/34135796796