QQC 2 6/17/11

Quote: "Nobody knows how many stars there are in the Milky Way-estimates range from 100 billion or so to perhaps 400 billion - and the Milky Way is just one of 140 billion or so other galaxies, many of them even larger than ours."

Question: Will we ever be able to travel through all these stars or maybe even the other galaxies? How can people estimate how many stars and galaxies there are if they can't even see them?

Comment: Wow. Its amazing how much of the universe we have never seen and how small a part of it we are. I can't even imagine how big it all really is and how long it would take to see everything. Also before this quote, the passage was talking about how there is a good chance there is life on other galaxies and stars, and just thinking about how large the universe is makes it seem silly to think that there couldn't be. I'm not really a huge believer in life on other planets, but I feel like if the universe is this big, (and we can't even see most of from where we are) it just seems like such a waste to have the rest of the universe and not have anything on it.

QQC 1 6/10/11

QUOTE: "I should say that everything is just right so far. In the long term, gravity may turn out to be a little too strong, and one day it may halt the expansion of the universe to bring it all collapsing in on it self... . On the other hand it may be too weak and the universe will keep racing away forever... so that the universe becomes a place that is inert and dead. The third option is that gravity is just right... and that it will hold the universe together at just the right dimensions to allow things to go on indefinitely."

QUESTION: Which one of these three options will be the one that becomes reality, and when will it happen?

COMMENT: I just thought it was really crazy how there is a 66% chance that gravity would destroy the universe because it was too strong or too weak. It was really scary to read that there is only a 33% chance that gravity is the perfect strength for the universe to never end. I guess I never really thought about gravity being "just right". Everyone talks about how if we were just a little closer to the sun or a little further from the sun we would die, or how if we didn't orbit the sun in just the position we do we would hit other planets, but you never hear about gravity not being right. Also the fact that it has been so long and gravity hasn't destroyed the universe yet could mean that it is just right, but it would also show how slightly it could be off. It could be just a tiny little bit too strong so it will take a long time for it to make the universe collapse on itself.