We are not alone

[BlackSword]

Not sure if this fits for Star Hero, but todays Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the map of 2 million galaxies.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Viewing the picture, its pretty amazing how complex the galaxies look, as a non-sf look it looks like there is a pretty good chance that there is life, maybe even intelligent, elsewhere in the universe.

From a sf/game perspective, looks like the possibilities are endless, at least if you can make it to the next closest galaxy.

[Ben Seeman]

The APOD archive is one of the sites I visit most frequently. And I agree, today's picture is amazing and rather humbling.

And yes, I'm sure there is definitely ONE other form of life somewhere in that picture. If there isn't, then our existence is an abberation in the Universe that seems to be too unlikely to occur if it hasn't occured anywhere else.

Having a Star HERO campaign take place on a universal level would be such an undertaking that there's not enough paper in the world to print out the supplements. Terran Empire is 200+ pages of goodness and it tackles only one galaxy over a 300+ year period. Multiply that by the number of galaxies in the Universe and you've got a mountain of information.

It would be cool, though... Universe HERO. I like it. :)

[Aroooo]

Ah, APOD = good. And remember, thats just a SMALL portion of the night sky...

Aroooo

[Ben Seeman]

I may have posted this before, but this site is pretty cool.

http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/universe.html

The link shows everything within 14 billion light years of our solar system. By clicking the ZOOM IN buttons on the lower left, it shows you the superclusters of galaxies, our own (Virgo) supercluster, our local group within the supercluster, the Milky Way and its satellites, the various arms of our own galaxy, the Orion Arm (the arm that our solar system is in), our solar neighborhood and finally the stars nearest to our system within 12.5 light years.

It's pretty amazing.

[JohnOSpencer]

Thanks for the link Ben. It's quite interesting. I spent 15 minutes just looking at the various zoom maps.

John Spencer

[BlackSword]

That link was very cool. I never realized how many stars were within 250 light yerars. A quarter million stars within spitting distance of earth. It is also amazing that at a distance even galaxies and galaxy cluster look like nebulae and star clusters of the milky way. It would be way too much of a headache to make a universe hero, but wow is there a lot of material to work with.

Yesterday there was an interview (posted in the papers today) with four of the astronauts who had walked upon the moon. They all gave their opnions about space flight and all agreed that we should return to the moon and continue to reach for the stars, however at least one thought that we should worry about the terrrestrial problems before we try to continue too much in space. While I agree that we have enough problems here on earth to deal about now, and our resources are best spent trying to help the rest of the world part of me can't help but to whine, I want to go into space now.

[Mentor]

Originally posted by Ben Seeman
I may have posted this before, but this site is pretty cool.

http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/universe.html

The link shows everything within 14 billion light years of our solar system. By clicking the ZOOM IN buttons on the lower left, it shows you the superclusters of galaxies, our own (Virgo) supercluster, our local group within the supercluster, the Milky Way and its satellites, the various arms of our own galaxy, the Orion Arm (the arm that our solar system is in), our solar neighborhood and finally the stars nearest to our system within 12.5 light years.

It's pretty amazing. Ben, I just lost a half hour zooming back and forth. Great site. Thanks.

[Tweedle]

Originally posted by Ben Seeman
And yes, I'm sure there is definitely ONE other form of life somewhere in that picture. If there isn't, then our existence is an abberation in the Universe that seems to be too unlikely to occur if it hasn't occured anywhere else.

Unfortunately, there is at the moment no evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life. Any discussion about the latter must remain for the time being speculative and inconclusive. While looking at pictures such as the Hubble Deep Field Image (http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/1996/01/) might fill one with a profound sense of awe, they do not provide any extra evidential weight to pro-ET arguments.

[dbcowboy]

Okay, there may not be any proof that ETs exist but looking at the image for 2003 June 30 - Disappearing Clouds of Carina I'm struck by the sense of humor of God. I swear that dust cloud is shooting the finger at the Hubble. Their explanation is:
Explanation: This dense cloud of gas and dust is being deleted. Likely, within a few million years, the intense light from bright stars will have boiled it away completely. Stars not yet formed in the molecular cloud's interior will then stop growing. The cloud has broken off of part of the greater Carina Nebula, a star forming region about 8000 light years away. Newly formed stars are visible nearby, their images reddened by blue light being preferentially scattered by the pervasive dust. This unusually-colored image spans about two light years and was taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in 1999. This Carina sub-cloud is particularly striking partly because it's clear definition stimulates the human imagination (e.g. it could be perceived as a superhero flying through a cloud, arm up, with a saved person in tow below).

Yeah I can kinda see the bottom part resembling a superhero carrying a person, but the top part looks like the bird.

Course, it could just be the crack.

[Ben Seeman]

Originally posted by dbcowboy
Yeah I can kinda see the bottom part resembling a superhero carrying a person, but the top part looks like the bird.


I thought the EXACT same thing. :)

[The Horror]

Originally posted by Ben Seeman
I may have posted this before, but this site is pretty cool.

http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/universe.html

The link shows everything within 14 billion light years of our solar system. By clicking the ZOOM IN buttons on the lower left, it shows you the superclusters of galaxies, our own (Virgo) supercluster, our local group within the supercluster, the Milky Way and its satellites, the various arms of our own galaxy, the Orion Arm (the arm that our solar system is in), our solar neighborhood and finally the stars nearest to our system within 12.5 light years.

It's pretty amazing.

What an absolutely fantastic site!!! Loads of stuff for my future sci-fi campaign.

Thanks again Ben!


The Horror