Part 2 of the inter-stellar size comparison video. Link to first in comments

Starts singing* "you've got a friend in me*

*harmonizes* "you've got a friend in me"

lol matter......cause its massive

I know. It is the only subject in school that captures my complete attention.

My instructor, a veritable genius on many levels (he attended 13 universities in 5 countries), told me today that a theory I mentioned was, well, genius. I suggested that we attach a probe or satellite to a passing comet and let it ride its way back to the Oort Cloud (the place all comets originate). Since we only know as much about it as we can see with telescopes, our information is limited and we don't have sufficient means to transport stuff there. But if we attached a probe to a comet, we wouldn't need to worry about propulsion and we could get up close to the Oort Cloud and send back data. He's actually making me write a proposal to NASA and try to get this project going.

That's brilliant! We need more information and that would be an invaluable resource for it. One day we (as a species) will be iradicated by something from space. It's happened before it WILL happen again. We waist so much time and valuable energy on exploring what we know. We need to dig deeper and see what we're capable of seeing on a much larger scale.

Yeah, my instructor doesn't like the fact that we've got all our species on one rock, like having all your eggs in the same basket. He had us each pick a moon in our solar system that is habitable and write up a report on how we could live there. We then had a debate competition with each team presenting their moon and why it's the best.

Ok. You have to tell me which was your choice would be and why.

Ganymede. Largest moon in our solar system and only moon known to have its own magnetic field, necessary for deflecting solar wind. It also keeps the atmosphere in place, where in most moons the gasses just float away cause they're too small to hang on to them Large underground saltwater ocean completely surrounding the core, which is hot like ours, and is constantly moving due to convection currents. Moving saltwater is good conditions for bacterial life, and by distillation we can get freshwater from the ocean. Atmosphere is 60% Oxygen, so we wouldn't need to bring an oxygen supply or worry about running out. Just filter some into the base from the atmosphere. Atmosphere is thin enough for us to get sufficient life to grow plants inside a bio-dome like structure. Also, the entire moon is encompassed by Jupiter's magnetosphere for added protection. Plus, you get to look up into the sky and see Jupiter. How awesome would that be?

That's fucking awesome!! How long would it take to reach it?

Year or two. Not really sure there, it could be less. What kind of place would you wanna live?

I don't know really. I've always wanted to explore more than settle down on one planet. I would love to just go through the galaxy on a big spacecraft till I die and see as much as I can.

So........you pretty much wanna be a companion to the Doctor?

Yes. But I'm being completely serious. It's not about some fan fiction to me. I could literally never see the same thing twice. You could see things no one else has ever seen! You could learn so much about planets, people don't even know exists! Imagine finding places you can only imagine and read about in science fiction. Imagine waking up and going to bed every night surrounded by beautiful moons and glorious suns. Imagine being the first human to see some of these things.

I've literally had dreams, vivid dreams, about those very things. To look at the sky and see planets you've never known, or could never even imagine without seeing them. Some of the coolest looking places would be the Horsehead Nebula and the Ring Nebula. Not to mention other galaxies, like the Andromeda. Binary star systems, there is too much to see, but I wanna see it all anyway

So much YES!! That's what I'm talking about! We should be preparing for the next stage. Who cares about the moon? Who cares about mars? We should be preparing ourselves for the vast exploration of REAL space! I know there would be volunteers to explore. I understand there's a lot of things that we need to cover before it's possible, but we should be planning for those things now! How can we create an energy source that can take us light years away? How will we feed ourselves? We could raise generations of explorers IN space! We could create a spacecraft that could simulate gravity (because without it our bones are screwed) we could create a propulsion system that could support itself. We should be doing this not just daydreaming about it.

Actually, we're very close to cracking artificial gravity. The gluon is the particle that causes the distortion in space that we feel as "gravity". If we are able to isolate this particle, and keep it in high concentrations in the deck of the ship, you would get the same effect as standing on the earth.