How many directions am I moving in while I'm just sitting here? Any idea of how fast? [more inside]
posted by zylocomotion on Mar 16, 2009 - 10 answers

What is the name of this science TV program where you are continually zooming out farther and farther from the Earth, and then zooming in to the microscopic level in someone's skin cell, while a man narrates? [more inside]
posted by kosmonaut on Nov 10, 2008 - 10 answers

Is it possible to be bad at math and understand the structure of the universe? [more inside]
posted by diogenes on Aug 20, 2008 - 19 answers

Is the amount of matter in the universe infinite, too? How does that work? [more inside]
posted by borkingchikapa on Aug 20, 2008 - 51 answers

What are the dimensions of the universe? [more inside]
posted by BirdD0g on Jul 11, 2008 - 47 answers

I am a little out of sorts sorting out my life as it is. Please give me some advice on how I should go about life in my thirties. [more inside]
posted by rawwell on Apr 26, 2008 - 23 answers

So, I've seen Sagan's Cosmos. I've seen The Universe. I've listened to Feynman's lectures on physics. What's next? [more inside]
posted by Optamystic on Apr 19, 2008 - 12 answers

How is the universe 156 billion light years across if it is only 13.7 billion years old?
posted by plexi on Mar 12, 2008 - 17 answers

Seeking recommendations for some great space exploration/simulation games. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi on Dec 20, 2007 - 10 answers

This is a total waste of my two weeks, but I have to ask! In just the past couple of days, I saw a great website that showed the comparative size of objects - from as small as an atom (or smaller) to the size of the universe. [more inside]
posted by matty on Apr 5, 2007 - 6 answers

Where can I send an email to the Universe? [more inside]
posted by allelopath on Mar 27, 2007 - 21 answers

"A human is halfway in size between an atom and the known universe"... This is a paraphrased quote I have come across several times. I like it. Who said it first? How true is it in the most literal sense? And, finally, what errors arrive in postulating a universe, or an atom, which can be measured AT ALL from our singular, relativistic, perspective? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Feb 18, 2007 - 14 answers

QuoteFilter: about the universe and thought. [more inside]
posted by provolot on Dec 10, 2006 - 9 answers

What is anti-matter? [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Sep 26, 2006 - 14 answers

Is there any evidence that physical laws have changed, or could possibly change over time? For example, has the speed of light - since the beginning of the universe - been the same, and will it always remain the same into the future? [more inside]
posted by extrabox on May 31, 2006 - 23 answers

Today's big science news story about a theoretically infinite number of big bangs immediately triggered memories of a non-fiction book or essay by Isaac Asimov that proposed the same theory of the universe. Am I recollecting Asimov's conjecture correctly, which if I remember correctly he proposed almost as a flight of poetic fancy. Does anyone remember what book this was in?
posted by Kattullus on May 12, 2006 - 3 answers

AskMeFi Physics folk: How do astronomers account for the temporal distinctiveness of their galactic subjects in their calculations? I understand that observations of the red shift of quasars delinates a speed increase in the expansion of the universe - yet my brain explodes when I try to understand how the enormous expanse of time is factored into these models. [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Apr 9, 2006 - 12 answers

Does space expanding require more nothingness inbetween? [more inside]
posted by leibniz on Mar 10, 2006 - 14 answers

Why did consciousness evolve? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Jan 25, 2006 - 39 answers

I want to make a poster out of this massive picture (29 megs) of the center of the milky way. Whats the cheapest way to do this?
posted by pwally on Jan 14, 2006 - 27 answers

EducationalWallChart Filter. I'm looking for printable web page(s) (or, alternatively, a retail product) that show a timeline of astronomical-anthopological events like: when Big Bang occurred; when our galaxy and solar system formed; when life began; when major life forms began and ended (e.g. dinosaurs); when primates appeared; when various proto-humans appeared; when homo sapiens appeared. Must be in TimeLine form. Not something vague and basic -- needs to have lots of detail.
posted by nancoix on Dec 29, 2005 - 4 answers

Can anyone recommend any good recent articles or papers on whether the universe is infinite or finite? I've heard that scientists suspect that the universe is flat, which lends credence to the infinite-universe hypothesis. I've decided I don't know enough about this. Nothing too technical, please, though I'd prefer something more complex than an article from a newspaper science section.
posted by painquale on Jan 12, 2005 - 20 answers

End of the universe scenarios. I'm familiar with the concepts of "heat death" as well as the universe contracting unto another Big Bang. How else might the universe someday become a completely un-survivable place?
posted by scarabic on Sep 9, 2004 - 10 answers

Okay all you astronomers, I just asked this is an older MeFi thread but figured I might get a better response here.

Go back to the big bang and you start off with a single point that exploded and has kept on expanding. So when you look back in time by way of observing distant places would you not end up looking at exactly the same place (the point) no matter which direction you looked?
posted by zeoslap on Jul 2, 2004 - 13 answers

AskMe physicists: Assuming there were any, where did the entropy from previous universes go? [more inside] [more inside]
posted by vraxoin on Feb 24, 2004 - 13 answers