Astronomers have discovered a huge filament of hot gas bridging four galaxy clusters. At 10 times as massive as our galaxy, the thread could contain some of the Universe’s ‘missing’ matter, addressing a decades-long mystery.
A bridge, you say? Then we can cross to other galaxies! Our overpopulation problems are solved!
On a more serious note, I wonder how much this would increase our ability to cross the gulfs. Assuming we could eventually build machines that can endure for hundreds of thousands of years, would the presence of a gas bridge would make ramscoops a more viable intergalactic option?
Imagine cashing in on a 100k year voyage which will only probably go wrong 10k-99.9k years after you die. Easy money for a capitalist, even if it involves making a vessel that can last that long
The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is only 25,000 ly from Earth. Assuming constant acceleration, and sufficient technology to protect and keep things running for all that time - no mean feat - reaching a substantial percentage of light should make that reachable within a hundred or so thousand light years, even with a flip and slow-down halfway.
Seque 1 is only 75k ly.
Andromeda is much farther; I didn’t catch it in the article, but I got the impression the strands were identified between the more local clusters.
…satellite galaxies != galaxy clusters; andromedia is 2.5 million light-years distant and the cluster in this study is about ten times that size, 23 million light-years across…
…that’s correct: i assumed 0.01c and didn’t adjust for time dilation, which can drastically affect the calculations depending upon how far we push relativistic super-science, although the required energies are commensurately absurd…
A bridge, you say? Then we can cross to other galaxies! Our overpopulation problems are solved!
On a more serious note, I wonder how much this would increase our ability to cross the gulfs. Assuming we could eventually build machines that can endure for hundreds of thousands of years, would the presence of a gas bridge would make ramscoops a more viable intergalactic option?
Stuff lasting that long? Capitalism will never allow it!
Imagine cashing in on a 100k year voyage which will only probably go wrong 10k-99.9k years after you die. Easy money for a capitalist, even if it involves making a vessel that can last that long
“This is Joe from Amazon Hyperdrives, I’m calling about your centennial warranty renewal.”
…for those distances we’re talking hundreds of millions of years at relativistic velocities, even billions…
The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is only 25,000 ly from Earth. Assuming constant acceleration, and sufficient technology to protect and keep things running for all that time - no mean feat - reaching a substantial percentage of light should make that reachable within a hundred or so thousand light years, even with a flip and slow-down halfway.
Seque 1 is only 75k ly.
Andromeda is much farther; I didn’t catch it in the article, but I got the impression the strands were identified between the more local clusters.
…satellite galaxies != galaxy clusters; andromedia is 2.5 million light-years distant and the cluster in this study is about ten times that size, 23 million light-years across…
Well, there go my vacation plans.
Wouldn’t the ship itself perceive a lot less of that time compared to an external point of reference?
…that’s correct: i assumed 0.01c and didn’t adjust for time dilation, which can drastically affect the calculations depending upon how far we push relativistic super-science, although the required energies are commensurately absurd…