August 13, 2014

Far Out: The Most Distant Stars in the Milky Way

Bell flight fourteen you now can land
Seen you on Aldebaran, safe on the green desert sand
It's so very lonely, you're two thousand light years from home

It turns out that 2,000 light years is only the beginning, folks, only the beginning. So .... step right up!:

One star is about 890,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces —33 times farther from the Milky Way's center than we are and well beyond the edge of the galactic disk. The only other Milky Way member at a comparable distance is a small galaxy named Leo I, which orbits ours at a distance of 850,000 light-years. If the star in Pisces revolves on a circular path as fast as we do, it takes some eight billion years to complete a single orbit around the galaxy. That's more than half the age of the universe.
- Scientific American

Posted by gerardvanderleun at August 13, 2014 9:12 AM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

The numbers alone keep me very very humble. I sit on my porch in the early morning hours looking at the stars and wonder how long and far the light from them has traveled in order for me to see it.
Cosmic Revelation

Posted by: Kelvin at August 13, 2014 12:06 PM

I see the same things when the window pane is peaking. ANYTIME of the day or night.
It is settled. Better living through Chemistry.

Posted by: Chris at August 13, 2014 4:43 PM

My uncle Louie Lozko, we all called him "Letsgo Lozko" he raised bantam chickens.
He thought the moon was the biggest and most important object in the night sky.
He said it was the most dangerous because it was closest. He was right.

Posted by: chasmatic at August 13, 2014 8:20 PM
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