Philosophical musing...

[MartinQ]

You can see ~5,000 stars and they live for 1 billion+ years, so probably all of them still exist.
But I can feel a bit of Eric Idle coming on

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk&ab_channel=MontyPython

 

[midlife]

Never mind philosophy, isn't it physics we need to be addressing? I think we may find that the concept of simultaneity ("actually still exist") lost any absolute meaning after Einstein.

Spooky action at a distance?

https://www.space.com/35676-einstein-spooky-action-starlight-quantum-entanglement.html

 

[The Fitter]

Yes, the brightest and closest are in our little corner of the ever expanding universe, but it still makes me wonder - Betelgeuse in the Orion constellation is only 429 light years away, so we're looking at the early 1600's, but in the same constellation Alnilam is over 1300 light years away so what we are seeing there actually happened when the Vikings invaded northern England.

Betelgeuse is about 10 million years old not 429. it is 640 light years away. Light years is a measure of distance not time.

 

[Andy_R]

Betelgeuse is about 10 million years old not 429. it is 640 light years away. Light years is a measure of distance not time.

I didn't say it was 429 years old, I said it was 429 light years away (You are correct though, it is 640 light years away). I am fully aware that light years are a measure of distance - so the Betelgeuse we observe now is effectively looking back in time 640 years ( because that's how long the light has taken to reach us)

 

[Dayvo]

Slightly related but I saw this video yesterday.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O9B3vzsZsr4

 

[Dogtrousers]

I think the number of visible stars in the Pleiades has reduced during human history. I seem to remember reading about myths that describe this.

Mind you that's exactly the kind of subject that encourages modern myths (myths about myths). So it may be cobblers.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

According to Sky News lots of stars died in 2021.

😢

 

[alchurch]

I have been wracking my brains about how to add some humourous insight into this topic. But I have failed completely.
Best leave it to the clever people, who understand fings like fizzicks....

OK saddle us with the problem

 

[alchurch]

A man asks the worker at the astronomy museum how old the universe is. He responds 13.7 billion and 7 years old.

The man is puzzled how the worker knew the age to such precision. The worker answered, When I got this job, the person who hired me told me that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, and I've worked here for seven years.

 

[bagpuss]

All your questions answered here !


View: https://youtu.be/SguL_w2Oerw?t=9