Will a human being ever see this?

[Neil]

Do you think the human race could travel so far that they could look back at our galaxy and see this?

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj3/pooch55_20/ig230_15_02.jpg

[Danny]

nope, not for at least a thousand years. we'd be to busy draining planets of all the recoures, poluting em' killing out indigenous life, y'know all the stuff humans do:lol:

[AssassinFromHell]

No because humans will be too busy doing the following:

1) Blowing each other up
2) Brutal murder
3) Sex
4) Making remakes
5) Creating more useless Power Rangers spinoffs

[Dommm]

why not people said we would never fly, the world was flat (I still believe this one), etc... it will give us somewhere else to blow each other up.

[Khardis]

No, but not because of all the silly crap like "were going to blow ourselves up and etc...

I say no because 1. we cannot and will never travel at the speed of light, physical mass cannot move as fast, only light can.

And 2. it would take 100s if not 1000s of years just to get that far away from the earth to look back. Unless you had a giant spaceship that couyld shelter and feed 100s of new generations then maybe a great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchild of the original travelers would get to see it. Thats only if they dont get sucked into a black hole or crash into an astroid belt or something 1st.

[Dommm]

Do you need feathers to fly, Human ingenuity has allowed us to overcome the fact we have no feathers and allowed us flight. Without going into all the various theories, there is a possibility that we could travel those distances (if we survive 'ourselves'). Cant, Wont, Impossible are all those things that are not looking for a solution rather just giving up before you started.

[Adrenochrome]

No - and, khardis is exactly right on why.

or, yes....if humans figure out how to fold time and space (which I doubt will ever happen)

[bassman]

No - and, khardis is exactly right on why.

or, yes....if humans figure out how to fold time and space (which I doubt will ever happen)

All we need is an Event Horizon. All they had to do was fold a piece of paper and stick a pencil through it to describe how it works.:p

[axlish]

Do you think the human race could travel so far that they could look back at our galaxy and see this?

http://www.space.com/images/ig230_15_02.jpg

No doubt in my mind, yes.

[Dommm]

just as almost instantanious communication, flight, travel into space were not possible so this is not.

[p2501]

one could hope............

then again we're kinda dumb when lumped together.

[EvilNed]

No.

Mankind will never be able to travel at the speed of light. And even if we do learn, it will take more than one year to reach Andromeda, the closest SOLAR SYSTEM to earth. It would probably take thousands of years until we can get outside our own galaxy, even with the speed of light.

Fact is, we'll probably never even leave our own solar system.

[dannoofthedead]

Generally, I'm a pessimist, but not here. I hope, and I feel confident that a handful of people may one day do it. Not the whole species, but a few perhaps.

[MinionZombie]

hehe, lotta pessimists 'round these 'ere parts.

I'll be optimistic and say yes, but it'll be a long damn time. Thousands and thousands of years before that probably...but I'd imagine with the human race with the help of technology, (just think how far technology has come since the turn of the 20th century), we'll get there one day...

[Neil]

All comes down to two things:-
a) If as a species we actually can survive. There's many ways our species could end..
b) If the speed of light cannot be broken, then that's it!

[Marie]

b) If the speed of light cannot be broken, then that's it!

What if our species survives AND ::rimshot:: unlocks the secret of immortality?

M_

[Chakobsa]

No.

Mankind will never be able to travel at the speed of light. And even if we do learn, it will take more than one year to reach Andromeda, the closest SOLAR SYSTEM to earth. It would probably take thousands of years until we can get outside our own galaxy, even with the speed of light.

Fact is, we'll probably never even leave our own solar system.
I think that you're refering to the Upsilon Andromedae planetary system which is actually around 44 light years away, so even if we could achive light speed it would still take that many years to get there. The trouble with looking for Planets is that they're hard to spot, more often than not planets or planet like objects are found because of the effect their orbits have on the parent star(s).
Most of the planets thus far discovered have been giants comperable or even greater in mass than our own solar systems largest gas giant Jupiter.
There are probably smaller rocky worlds orbiting closer, Sun like stars. Finding such tiny specks in the imensity of space is a bit tricky.
I think that we will eventually reach out to the stars probably via some kind of generation ship. These do not need to travel at huge velocities, even at 10% of lightspeed the vessel could reach Alpha Centauri in forty years.
Generation ships cannot be built at this time, as they would be so vast that they would need to be assembled in space. That's not to say that we'll never do it, I'm sure that if we don't wipe ourselves out and civilisation as we know it endures then the atempt will be made.
As to travelling beyond our own galaxy so we could look back and see it like the Picture Neil posted? I'm not optimistic, consider our galaxy's size, something like 100,000 light years across the middle (we're 25,000 to 30,000 light years from the centre and our solar system takes 225 million years to complete a circuit...:eek:.
BTW, I'd hope that if we could do it we wouldn't see what we see in Neil's picture 'cause I may be wrong but I think that that bright nucleus means that that's a Seyfert galaxy, Not a place I'd like to be anywhere near as they are highly active places, being constantly blasted by high energy x rays and other nasties.
"The earth is just too small and fragile a basket for
the human race to keep all it's eggs in."
Robert A. Heinlein.

[p2501]

All comes down to two things:-

b) If the speed of light cannot be broken, then that's it!

that's providing that the speed of light even matters. One of the common assuptions about long range space travel is that it would be based around an FTL system.

in all due honesty, we've only spent what 50-60 years exploring outer space, and theorizing about quantum level physics. i tend to think alot of what we treat as "fact" about the way physics works out there, will become patheticly outdated in 200-300 years.

[MinionZombie]

in all due honesty, we've only spent what 50-60 years exploring outer space, and theorizing about quantum level physics. i tend to think alot of what we treat as "fact" about the way physics works out there, will become patheticly outdated in 200-300 years.

Good damn point there man, indeed, while for many of us the whole space travel thing has been around for our lifetimes since we were born (or not long after) then I duno, it feels more established than it really is in the big picture of things ... if that makes sense.

[p2501]

Good damn point there man, indeed, while for many of us the whole space travel thing has been around for our lifetimes since we were born (or not long after) then I duno, it feels more established than it really is in the big picture of things ... if that makes sense.

that's because it's sold with such a level on confidence that we're lead to believe that it's all well confirmed and we know what we're doing.

Personally, i'll have alot more faith in Quantum/Newtonian and physics in general once we actually get out there and start interacting with these things we think we know so much about.

untill then were just children, arguing about how fast our dad's car can go.

[Neil]

that's providing that the speed of light even matters. One of the common assuptions about long range space travel is that it would be based around an FTL system.

in all due honesty, we've only spent what 50-60 years exploring outer space, and theorizing about quantum level physics. i tend to think alot of what we treat as "fact" about the way physics works out there, will become patheticly outdated in 200-300 years.

Maybe, maybe not... But Einstein's been pretty good until now...

If he's right, then we're stuffed...

[p2501]

Maybe, maybe not... But Einstein's been pretty good until now...

If he's right, then we're stuffed...

this is true.

on a long enough time line, we're going to find out. I just hope i live long enough to see it.

[DeadJonas190]

I believe a human will one day see that sight. It may be thousands of years before it happens, but with the way technology advances it could be only a few hundred years away. There is a still a lot of science out there that lies undiscovered and nobody knows what still lies dormant. Look at how many things that exist today because of an accident (nylon and microwave ovens are two examples off the top of my head).

Anyway, I guess my point is that currently there is no way we could ever do this in our lifetimes, but I believe that someday it will be possible.

[Deadman_Deluxe]

Yes.

And furthermore, i do not believe that they will be the first of our species to witness such sights.

[Dommm]

Mind over Matter

[Chakobsa]

Mind over Matter
What do you mean?

[Fulcifan91]

I voted no, i think we'll all be dead before that happens.

[Mike70]

i think maybe in several thousand years.

there is one thing that can move faster than light - space itself. this is the idea behind warping space - which is possible if you have a power source equivalent to the sun.

or even better being able to grab a naturally existing wormhole in the quantum foam and enlarge it. or being able to control gravity enough to force one open.

with over 150 extra solar planets discovered so far (and counting) i don't think the dream of going to the stars will die anytime soon. sooner or later (probably sooner) a terrestrial sized planet will be discovered in the right orbit around its sun- if spectrometry reveals the presence of ozone, carbon dioxide and water in the atmosphere of said planet, the interest in space research will explode in a way that not even the apollo moon missions could match.

[Dommm]

What do you mean?

By this I mean a state of mind where you forget what is impossible and approach the problem with soloutions. To simply say somthing is impossible is not good enough with or withou reasons, it is better to approach the problem with the view not of this cant be done but rather how can it be done. Sorry to go all Matrix on you.

[CivilDefense]

What do you mean?

If you dont mind, it doesnt matter..


Actually a great philosopher once said..

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the "Milky Way".

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.