Largest Star in Universe (so far) St2-18

[Butkus51]

6-30-26

I saw a show on YouTube about our Universe.  The largest known star in da Universe is St2-18 or Stephenson2-18.  It’s in our galaxy, Milky Way and 19,000 LY from earth.

1.  10 billion of our Sun could fit in this giant.  Crazy Big

2.  Traveling 550 mph (rate of a commercial airliner) would take 1,212 yrs to make a complete trip around its equator.  Unreal.

3.  Traveling 17,500 mph (rate of a spacecraft) would take 38.1 yrs to make a complete trip around its equator.  Dang!

[Java]

So you’re telling us we better get started and we are running out of time?

 

I call the window seat

[Butkus51]

The age of our astronauts 28 yrs to 46 yrs, with an average age = 34 yrs.  Let’s go with the avg age.  Going by the speed of 17,500 mph spaceship, the astronauts would be 72 when mission completed.  Their boss would tell them when you come back, you’ll receive back pay + social security.

The deal breaker is logistics issues: enough food, water, medicine and other personal things to sustain their life. Can’t store up all dat stuff.  No point in making the mission.  Heck, in space travel, probes, AI machines, robots are the only feasible ways for inter space travel…  Cheers

[Butkus51]

Crazy info.  There are way more stars in the Universe than all the sand on earth.

Astronomers estimate there are roughly 10,000 stars in the observable universe for every single grain (10,000 to 1) of sand on all the beaches and deserts on Earth.  For the longest time, it was estimated there were 400 B galaxies, but now with the advanced, powerful James Webb telescope which can see further into time, it is now estimated that there are 2 trillion galaxies (unreal).

• This reply was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by Butkus51.

[Butkus51]

Mucho Big.

Galaxies.  Est 2 Trillion G in our Universe.  Galaxies size, range: 100 B to 1 trillion stars.  Dark Matter (gravity) holds Galaxies together.  DM = 27% of Universe.

Our Universe has about 2 x 10 to power 23, stars.  Or, 200 sextillion.  Sextillion = 10 to power 21.

Universe age about 13.9 B years old.  But, currently it’s 93 B LY across (diameter). The Universe is expanding about 350 K LY per day (crazy fast).  Dark Energy (anti gravity) is the culprit = 68% of Universe.

The Universe:  68% Dark Energy, 27% Dark Matter, 5% = Stars, Planets, Meteors, Star Dust, Comets, Black Holes.

Here is a Craziest idea (theory).  Many astronomers,  cosmologists think there could be millions, parallel Universes (Multi Universes).  String Theory.  Come on, now dat;s Freaky!

Finally, there are a good number, prominent astronomers, cosmologists think & believe God created everything.  Hallelujah.

• This reply was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by Butkus51.
• This reply was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by Butkus51.

[Old Pueblo]

Cool subject Butkus51. I went to a star party many years ago in joshua tree where the enthusiasts bring their scopes and you can use them, the advanced stuff that follows the earth’s rotation. Kind of mind blowing that one of the ‘stars’ in the orion constellation is a nebula. Then i was in tucson and mt kitt is a big boy observatory. Very cool. Too bad we don’t have a good public observatory in southern CA. I hear borrego springs is a good place to stargaze but have yet to check it out. An aside, my oldest kid couldn’t give a sheet about the universe but my youngest and his buddies are space crazy and watches those youtube vids. I’m glad to see that.

[Butkus51]

1st theory.  Our Universe will eventually go completely dark, no light from stars/suns.  All the stars in the Universe will die.  Estimate time, hundred’s billion years from now. Universe not Infinity.

2nd theory, expansion of the Universe will cease and collapse into the Big Crunch or back to zero time and space.  Est time, 35 billion years from now.  And, the rebirth of another Big Bang.

Theologians and now Cosmologists believe Everything has a Birth and Death.  That thought applies to our Universe…  Cheers

 

[GTrojan2]

Nah, both are wrong.  As for UFOs, consider that the closest star to us, other than the sun, is 4 light years away and does not have any planets that could sustain life.  If we had a spaceship that could travel at the speed of one million miles per hour it would take around 2700 years to reach it.  What does that tell you about the likelihood of aliens coming from other solar systems?

[San Clemente]

https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/physicists-believe-that-warp-drive-could-exist-in-the-next-100-years/

[GTrojan2]

Are you buying it sc?

[Butkus51]

Bruddah GTrojan, looked it up.  Proxima Centauri is the nearest star = 4.22 LY away or 24.83 trillion miles.  Traveling 1 million mph would take 2,834 yrs to reach it.  Now they must return back to earth, lol.  Yeah, your UFO theory is sound, distance is too great for inter space travel.  But, I’ve heard about the Warp Drive theory, by Doc SC posted article.

Here is da skinny, Dark Energy (anti gravity) is pushing galaxies and everything with mass at 1.4 M mph, crazy speed.  So, what does dat mean, a spaceship if traveling with dat speed would be standing still and not even make momentum towards to Proxima star.  So in our calculation, a spaceship would need to travel 2.4 M mph.

But, I believe there are UFO’s and USO’s on earth.  I’ve seen enough videos, shows, witnesses & officials say there are UFO’s and USO’s among us…  Cheers

[GTrojan2]

Spirit beings Butkus.

[Java]

Professor Reaves at USC was asked about UFO and ets.   He said much the same as you.

that our telescopes and ability to see was millions of light years away.

He said let’s assume nothing can travel faster than light.

now any living being has to have a Carbon or water base.

he said anything we could detect at the end of our known reach would be dead by the time it reached our  earth.

we all picked it apart.  Suggesting suspended animation.  Lifespans of extra terrestrials being longer.  And even surpassing the speed of light.  He wasn’t having any of it and wasn’t impressed with our freshmen and sophomore distractions from his lecture 🙂

[Butkus51]

Pay scale for Astronomers/Cosmologist.  Surprising low, dang.

For a long time, I had heard they were on the low end for a PHD degree.  I looked it up and was startled.  Starting pay $50,000 to $60,000.  Mid tier $70,000.  Senior position $115,000.  With dat kind of pay for 5 to 7 years would be hard living in California and raise a family.  The senior level pay is good.

Google AI.  Starting pay for astronomers is relatively low primarily due to the “passion tax,” where employers leverage high intrinsic motivation, knowing candidates will accept less for a dream job. Additionally, basic research generates uncertain commercial ROI, and there is an oversupply of PhD graduates relative to permanent academic openings, which suppresses early-career wages.

Early-career hurdles include:  Stipends & Fellowships: During the 5 to 8 years of a PhD, students receive modest stipends (roughly $30,000 to $40,000 annually). Postdoctoral researchers—the typical “starting job” after a PhD—usually pay around $50,000 to $60,000 on temporary 2-to-5-year contracts.

Soft Money Reliance: Many researcher roles rely on external grant funding. Low acceptance rates mean astronomers spend considerable uncompensated time writing proposals just to secure their salaries.

Long Training Pipeline: Despite needing roughly a decade of rigorous higher education, entry-level academic and government salaries (e.g., lower GS-scale NASA roles) start around $60,000 to $70,000 before hitting the overall BLS median of $114,870 for experienced, permanent positions.

[Java]

It’s because there’s no commercial demand or market for them.  Shoot high schools done even want them. At least the liberal arts tards can go teach hs and middle school sociology English or history or government.  What is one of these gonna do?

and math or engineering profs can go join industry or high tech somewhere.  So there’s a competitive push for their salaries.    This is like being a music teacher.  All passion.  No real commercial demand.  Unless as a music teacher you have a playing talent and can do studio work. Even that’s very sporadic.

[Author]

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