really interesting but when it got to the black matter bit………..

I’m sort of following it… Kinda. 😯
Oh, and I’d dearly love a copy of that huge photo of the Milky Way that bloke took; just beautiful!

So when can we get an OS map of the universe?

I love this sort of show, though sometimes I only understand about one word in ten. Will watch it later on iplayer, thanks for the headsup.

im really tired but just cant switch it off and go to bed!

edit

im loving that dark matter/cosmic microwave background may carry imprints of other universes ours has colided with!!!!!

I am just relieved that it looks like it is shapeless and goes on forever. Just had to put the wifes mind at rest though that its all likely to end any day soon 😆
I have recorded it to watch again without to many wife questions and to try and take some more in.

Tick as a reminder to self to iPlayer it later.

Get you lot, coming over all brian cox

(or a poster, at least) 😉

He’s not really my type

The amazing Milky Way photo is available as a app, and the guy who took it has a web site here: http://skysurvey.org/

damn no android?

thats probably the 1st genuine reason ive seen for buying an ipad!

I wonder how they get the funding, trying to measure the immeasurable object that is constantly growing.

“The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it’s queerer than we can suppose”…

J. B. S. Haldane.

“..is not only queerer than we suppose, it’s queerer than we can suppose”…
J. B. S. Haldane.

I thought he was talking about ‘Heaven’

As in the nightclub

Kimbers, it really is quite beautiful! I’ve always rated Starwalk, but Skysurvey is just stunning, because it properly shows all the dust clouds around the edge of the galaxy, as well as nebulae and other features. It also shows deep sky objects, too. A bargain at £1.99.
The amount of work that went into the photography and putting the photographs together is astounding, a real labour of love.

Really enjoyed it, a return to form for Horizon which is often a bit thin on actual information.

The pictures of the Milky Way were amazing.

The explanation of bubble universes and how they might be detected was really cool.

Still quite difficult to get my head around the idea that the universe in infinite but getting bigger?

I wonder how they get the funding, trying to measure the immeasurable object that is constantly growing.

That’s the trick though – set yourself an attainable job, you have to find something else to do once complete. Set yourself an unattainable task, job for life if you can sell the idea.

Enjoyed it that much that I watched it again last night, looks brilliant in the HD option on iPlayer.

Watched this last night and I’m with richmtb

“Still quite difficult to get my head around the idea that the universe in infinite but getting bigger?”

So can someone please answer… How can something be infinite yet still be gretting bigger? (don’t think they explained this on the program or maybe I missed that bit)

Cheers

So can someone please answer… How can something be infinite yet still be gretting bigger?

Imagine the universe as a game of Asteroids (old arcade game where you shoot asteroids that disappear off one side of the screen only to appear immediately on the other border of the screen), now imagine that everything on the screen is constantly getting smaller – the asteroids and your spaceship, so the distance to the border is growing relative to the speed both asteroids and ship moves at.

Then imagine that this universe is just one of an infinite number of other equally infinite and expanding universes.

It’s like that but different.

“Still quite difficult to get my head around the idea that the universe in infinite but getting bigger?”

n is any number from zero upto and including infinity.

Now, think of n as a collection of bikes.

Now, replace n with n+1

I think it’s because it’s on a conveyor belt

Still quite difficult to get my head around the idea that the universe in infinite but getting bigger?

It’s not supposed to be easy to understand 🙂

n+1, where n is the number of dimensions you think there are?

So space is “flat” which means it goes on forever with no bondaries. I can accept this it makes sense, there is no end to space and its expanding. So just like drawing two dots on a balloon and blowing it up galaxies move apart as the space in between expands.

But is the stuff in the universe is finite? Or is there a limitless amount of stuff in the universe?

Who presented it? The last few Horizons I’ve seen have been more about the presenter than the subject, which is a bit crap.

one question I would have like answered is this inflating universe happening at a sub atomic level ?

one question I would have like answered is this inflating universe happening at a sub atomic level ?

No is the quick answer.

Atoms are held together by the strong and weak nuclear forces and electromagnetism.

These forces are all very stong at distance on the scale of an atom. So an atom doesn’t “feel” the space inside it expanding

Even large scale structure in the universe such as galaxy are pretty well held together by gravity.

Back to the balloon analogy:
Imagine the universe is a balloon being blown up. Dots on the surface of the balloon move further apart as the balloon “inflates”

Now imagine that the ink in the dots likes to stick together (becuase of gravity). The dots move apart but don’t get any bigger as the balloon inflates.

So the expansion reallly just affects the empty space in the universe

T’was a great programme, I love all this stuff as well. What’s great was that when I was a kid, everyone said the universe is infinite and would never end. Then 15 years later they were saying that the universe was finite and there would be a big crunch. 15 years later still, and we’ve come full circle.
Couldn’t help thinking that they used simple trigonometry to measure that the universe is flat – but only to three decimal places. So it could still be that the universe is curved, just so little that we have trouble measuring it – or that its soooo big that the numbers wouldn’t mean anything to us, therefore we can consider it to be infinite…

@MrSalmon – it was narrated, with small pieces by assorted astro physicists. Always a good sign, as it means they have so much info to pack in that they don’t have time for a celebrity presenter.