Milky Way weighs in at 3x10 to the 42d kg

[DesertFox]

AFTER pondering the weighty question of the mass of the Milky Way galaxy, astronomers have come up with an answer: 42.

That is, our galaxy weighs three times 10 to the power of 42 kilograms - a number written as 3 followed by 42 zeroes, which has echoes of author Douglas Adams's fictional answer to the question of life, the universe and everything in his series Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

It seems esoteric but knowing the weight of the galaxy - the amount of matter it contains - is key to solving important astronomical problems.

Of particular interest to astrophysicist Ken Freeman is the nature of so-called dark matter. Unlike the "ordinary matter" of stars and planets, scientists have only hunches about the nature of the invisible material that, along with "dark energy", they estimate makes up 96 per cent of the universe.


More (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22025960-29677,00.html)

[Wolfcounsel]

Okay! I'll write that down on my list of things I have to know.

[DesertFox]

3 tredecillion kg.





A bunch

[DoctorDoom]

... scientists have only hunches about the nature of the invisible material that, along with "dark energy", they estimate makes up 96 per cent of the universe.They hope so. Without that mass to cause an eventual reversal of expansion, justifying the theory of infinite Big Bangs and Big Gnabs, they face a universe with a beginning and the philosophical implications thereof.

[DesertFox]

Even that mass won't stop the expansion. They've discovered that inflation has begun again, and that's the stuff that expands exponentially in nanoseconds. If it's still going on, then the density of matter/energy in the cosmos shrinks gigantically with every second that passes.

No way it can ever pull itself together again without help from The Old Man.

[DoctorDoom]

They'll still hope. The alternative is unthinkable.

[DesertFox]

You're right, if we accept that they really mean what they say. But I don't think they do. Liberals are all about drama. They put on an act for its attention value, not for its credibility. At present they think it chic to, er, believe in atheism, and evolution, and all that -- not because these stances are credible but because they think it makes them seem brave, believe it or not. I mean, try to put yourself in a 13-year-old's shoes (that's about the right emotional stage for most libs). All the respectable folk believe in God, which puts paid both to atheism and evolution in the commonly-accepted meaning thereof. That being the case: IF God does exist, what guts to sneer in His face! And you get the satisfaction of sneering at mom and pop!

That's how liberals think, though even they recognize how stupid and shallow this "reasoning" sounds so they don't talk out loud about it.