I heard on QI that the universe is supposed to be 'saddle-shaped' so I'm not sure if we could actually view ourselves or not. Maybe if light refracted in a certain way........ oh, I don't know.

Shouldn't Vulcan's find us FIRST?
Oh, we're still short of a warp drive, damn.

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Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On What if you consider that the Universe is both every shape, yet none of them? You are referring to space-time curvature, I assume, but what about the fact that red shift tells us some parts of the universe are expanding at faster-than-light speeds?

interesting. what does the red shift have to do with indicating that parts of the univers are expanding faster than the speed of light? Isn't it just to reinforce the fact that light travels at a finite but very fast speed and signify that whatever is producing it as a receeding source? Wouldn't the amount of Doppler shift be more signifcant in determining the speed of development if it is beyond the speed of light?

Oh, maybe. It's been some time since Astronomy. All I know is what the experts tell me!

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Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On Oh, maybe. It's been some time since Astronomy. All I know is what the experts tell me!

haha...dammit. i was actually looking for answers

any real astrophysicists out there? this shit is just my elective...lol

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Originally posted by Gypsy haha...dammit. i was actually looking for answers any real astrophysicists out there? this shit is just my elective...lol

Oh.

Well Doppler shift is just a variation on red shift/blue shift, I suppose. So no, it wouldn't necessarily be more effective since it's the same thing. As for how we know the universe is expanding [at parts] faster than the speed of light? Jesus, that was just something I had heard as a theory. I couldn't tell you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe_expansion

Try that.

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I'm confused. I thought NOTHING is supposed to travel faster than the speed of light. If this is the case, then how does to universe travel faster than the speed of light? I know that tachyons are supposed to theorectically travel faster than light, but it's a sub-atomic particle. The universe itself is mass and according to Einstein, mass cannot travel faster than light. Period. Light, or Photons, exist in a quantum state being both energy and mass, depending on whether or not it's state is in at time of observation. (Observing a photon chages it's state if my memory serves correctly). It is at the speed of light, but not faster.

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Originally posted by Gypsy interesting. what does the red shift have to do with indicating that parts of the univers are expanding faster than the speed of light? Isn't it just to reinforce the fact that light travels at a finite but very fast speed and signify that whatever is producing it as a receeding source? Wouldn't the amount of Doppler shift be more signifcant in determining the speed of development if it is beyond the speed of light?

the universe isnt expanding faster than the speed of light. the "red shift" denotes that galaxies are moving away from us.

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AFAIK, this isn't the first planet they found which could have similar qualities to earth...

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Originally posted by echosystm AFAIK, this isn't the first planet they found which could have similar qualities to earth...

i read an article a couple of years ago that said they found a new planet about once ever 3-4 months.

it would well cool if we could meet other civilisations and it destroyed religious belief (both on their planet and ours).

but no, we'd just try to convert them to christianity

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Originally posted by Prometheus Xex I'm confused. I thought NOTHING is supposed to travel faster than the speed of light. If this is the case, then how does to universe travel faster than the speed of light?

"Some sources indicate that the big bang caused an expansion which traveled faster than the speed of light. How can this be?

You ask a good question, one whose answer lies in the subtle difference between expansion that is faster than the speed of light and the propagation of information that is faster than the speed of light. The latter is forbidden by fundamental physical laws, but the former is allowed; that is, as long as you are not transmitting any information (like a light pulse), you can make something happen at a speed that is faster than that of light. The expansion of the Universe is a "growth" of the spacetime itself; this spacetime may move faster than the speed of light relative to some other location, as long as the two locations can't communicate with each other (or, in terms of light rays, these two parts of the Universe can't see each other). According to the theory of inflation, the Universe grew by a factor of 10 to the sixtieth power in less than 10 to the negative thirty seconds, so the "edges" of the Universe were expanding away from each other faster than the speed of light; however, as long as those edges can't see each other (which is what we always assume), there is no physical law that forbids it."

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/qu....php?number=387