Open Mike: Vortices, Bedsheets, and the Speed of Light

["Open Mike" is the super-self-indulgent Opinion Page of TOP, wherein Yr. Hmbl. Ed. doesn't do a lick of work but rather writes about anything that goes a-flittin' across his brain-pan. You are warned.]

Sunday!

Sunday is Wash Day here at TOP Rural World Headquarters.

Yesterday, Saturday, was Housework Day. That's the day every week when I feel guilty for not doing enough housework. Sunday is the day when I put the bedsheets into the washing machine (I only have one set, on account of I cannot sleep on two at once), and bring the rest of the laundry down and set it down next to the washing machine. Then, every Sunday at approximately ten to eleven post meridiem—bedtime is 10:30 p.m., theoretically—I discover the wet sheets in the washing machine, am forced to stay up looking at YouTube Shorts until they dry, and am then forced to make the bed in the mental state of wanting simply to be in the bed.

While the rest of the laundry sits placidly in the basket next to the washing machine where I put it that morning. This happens, um, every week.

But right now it's Sunday morning, and I have just gotten the sheets in, first thing, and I am swelled up with energy, determination, and that feeling of virtuousness one gets when one is dispatching the chores which one ought to dispatch if one were virtuous and determined!

So all is well.

For now.

Vortex
Here are a couple of fun facts about the Universe, for your delectation and delight.

First, imagine that the Sun is a golf ball. In real life it is bigger, and does not have a dimpled surface, but a surprising amount of the things we know we know through modeling. So imagine the Sun were the size of a golf ball. If it were, then the Earth would be about the size of a largish grain of sand. Jupiter, the largest planet, would be a BB. The grain-of-sand Earth would be 15 feet (4.5 meters) away from the golf ball. So, with that scale model firmly in your mind, guess how close the next-nearest golf ball—representing the nearest star to the Sun—would be from the first golf ball?

To be answered below.

Meanwhile, I simply must pass along this lovely graphic animation, called "Solar System 2.0," by djsadhu.com, which was shared with me by my friend Gus (short for Gustav) Van Winkle, a retired weather man and local news anchor from another State. Gus is also an astronomy enthusiast.

Isn't that astonishing? I don't know how accurate it is. Or rather how accurate Neil DeGrasse Tyson would think it is. He's my go-to public intellectual for all sorts of tasty factoids, many of which revolve, no pun intended, around planets, astrophysics, and the Universe. Check out his Shorts, but don't blame me if you get mildly addicted.

A fur piece
Now about the other golf ball. I live about here:

If the Sun were a golf ball and my golf ball were where I live, then the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, would be just a little the other side of St. Louis, Missouri, 750 miles (1,207 km) away.

Zowie. The Universe is...big.

Actually, though, if all were to scale, Proxima Centauri would be about the size of a green pea. You might have heard that Alpha Centauri is the nearest star, but Alpha Centauri is actually a star system, consisting of three stars, of which Proxima Centauri is the dimmest but also the closest. We "look back in time" as we look at stars, so we're looking back 4.25 years in time when we look at Alpha Centauri in the night sky. Of course, we don't just look back in time when we look at faraway stars: the light from the sun takes about eight and a third minutes to get here, so we only ever see it about eight and a third minutes in the past.

It's eight and a third light-minutes away. Light, the fastest thing we know of, actually travels kinda slowly. Fortunately, we do not have to account for this when taking pictures!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Aaron: "My solution to forgetting the sheets type of problem is to set a timer on my phone. I always have the phone with me, so I always have the timer with me. This has saved me on countless occasions—remembering to pick up the kids from school, getting the pie out of the oven, leaving work early for the doctor, remembering the evening meeting, etc."

Mike replies: That's good advice. You can also just tell the phone to set an alarm. And I'm doing well today, so far, at 4 p.m.: all the laundry's done and back upstairs.  :-)

Malcolm Myers: "I once showed my Beaver Scout colony the scale of the solar system by reducing it down to 10 m from the Sun to Neptune (sorry Pluto). The distances are: Mercury: 0.12 m Venus: 0.23 m Earth: 0.32 m Mars: 0.49 Jupiter: 1.68 m Saturn: 3.09 m Uranus: 6.22 m Neptune: 10.00 m Pluto: 12.85 m At this scale the sun is like a sugar bead you get on top of a cup cake. The nearest star is 54 miles away. I was amazed at the scale of it."

Dave B: "DO NOT ever think of quitting Open Mike! 😉 "

Peter Jeffrey Croft: "My solution to the sheets problem is that my weekly cleaning lady changes the bed and washes them for me. Even hangs them on the line and gets them in and folds them. Angel."

Mike replies: Lucky man.

EdK: "Shot this pic of our 'dimpled' 'golf ball' yesterday using a solar filter (don't try this without a solar filter, especially when using a DSLR, to avoid serious permanent eye/camera damage)....  As you can see, there are a lot of sunspots stretching across the heliosphere—or else my camera's sensor needs a serious cleaning. We are approaching the period known as Solar Max during our shared life with a nearby cantankerous star. The opportunities to see/image aurora is also maximizing. Say a quiet prayer of thanks for the star that keeps life on Earth possible, and enjoy the light!"

Zyni: "The djsadhu.com animation is widely thought to be misleading, and behind it live some very junk ideas. Here are a couple of references to people talking about this. Forbes; Universe Today."

Comments

[robert e]

"Light, the fastest thing we know of, actually travels kinda slowly."

It's a good thing we have global shutters. Otherwise, the sun would look like a leaning, oval golf ball. I hope I'm understanding that correctly ;)

[Dan Khong]

Laundry is therapeutic to many people. I know a cardiologist who loves doing his family's laundry when not looking at heartbeats.

This Solar System 2.0 is a more realistic model as our solar system moves with time along the Milky Way.

[Speed]

Mike wrote, "We 'look back in time' as we look at stars, so we're looking back 4.25 years in time when we look at Alpha Centauri in the night sky."

I used to "look back in time" by developing and printing last year's Christmas pictures in time to share them with family on the July Fourth holiday.

[All photographs are really of the fourth dimension. --Mike]

[calvin amari]

The expansion of the universe could be a mirage, new theoretical study suggests: https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/dark-energy/the-expansion-of-the-universe-could-be-a-mirage-new-theoretical-study-suggests
Good news for people who can't remember where they left things.

[Mike Cawley]

I do outreach for one of the local astronomy clubs. A frequent question concerns distance from Earth to what they're looking at in my scope. I fallback to "light years" in terms of how far away an object is. But I remember an example of the Solar System being the size of a baseball and the Andromeda galaxy would wind up about halfway to the Moon.

[Peter Jeffrey Croft]

Great animation. That's the way I visualise the fourth dimension. We all know the three dimensions, x, y and z. The fourth is time, and is visualised by seeing (in your mind's eye) any object moving along a path as time passes. Only forward direction allowed, yes? Why not backwards? There's a question ...

That's four, but I'm danged if I can visualise a fifth or higher dimension. Especially the eleven required by string theory. I'll leave that to Sheldon.

[Kye Wood]

Two things. In order of importance. Life changing is the event wherein you purchase a quality dehumidifier. Throw one in a spare bedroom, and add a portable clothes hanger. Snap! A drying room. You'll be stunned at how quickly washing dries when you put it in a room with 30% humidity. Ours uses stuff-all electricity too.

Thing two. That grain of sand to golf ball mental image is incredible. Why in the hell don't they teach that (and how important money management skills are) at junior levels of school? Maybe they do now? Getting old is both fun and just faintly confounding sometimes.

Thanks for listening!

[Richard Tugwell]

There are many places that have scale solar system models, often integrated into walking/hiking or cycling routes. One I know runs along the Uetliberg, on the west side of Lake Zurich.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetenweg_Uetliberg

Boy, does it take you a long time to get to Pluto!

The Smithsonian has an article--

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/a-walk-through-the-solar-system-62851158/

[Roger Bradbury]

To give English children in the (I think) late 60s or early 70s an idea of the size of the solar system, a schools TV programme was made. It began in a classroom, where there was a piece of a sphere, representing part of the sun.

The camera moved out into the playground, where there was a tiny ball on a stick; Mercury. The cameraman then got into a helicopter which took off, heading in a straight line. Every so often flew over another ball on a stick; Venus, Earth, and so on.

The helicopter flew over many fields and hedges before it got to the last tiny ball; Pluto.

[Roger Bradbury]

Oho! So I'm not the only one who forgets to dry their washing!

Your post was well timed, as I read it while on hold, ordering the right drive belt for my early 70s tumble dryer. It's taken a month to get the right part; not ideal in an English November!

[Robert Roaldi]

We live in the past our entire lives. It takes some finite time for electrical impulses to travel from our sensors (eye, skin, etc) to our brain. By the time the brain is conscious of something, touch, shadow, etc., that moment is already in the past.

Seems to me that a good sci-fi plot could be built around this. I don't read sci-fi, maybe someone already has.

[Tom Burke]

Size of the Universe (or even just the galaxy.) (Or, even!, just the nearest bit of it....): Voyager 1, which has been travelling for about 45 years, has not quite got 1 light-DAY from the sun; it has travelled about 1/500 of a light year. So: it will take Voyager 1 about 45 years x 500 to travel 1 light year, which is about 22,500 years. The Centauri system is around 4.5 light years away, which suggests that it will be about 100,000 years before Voyager 1 reaches that system (or travelled as far as it - I don't know in which direction the probe is actually travelling).

So: 100,000 years to get as far as the nearest star, other than our sun.

[Patrick Perez]

Mike said "Light, the fastest thing we know of, actually travels kinda slowly."

I'd like to see you travel faster!

I didn't think so, tough guy ;-)

Patrick

[Patrick Perez]

I recently read (I hope this is accurate) that on the subject of celestial time scale, the north star, Polaris, has existed for less time than sharks have. Star-facts dot com puts it's age at 70 million years.

Patrick

[Grahn Johan]

As far as youtube channels about space I can highly recommend the incredibly enthusiastic Dr Becky.
https://www.youtube.com/@DrBecky

[Mark Pfeifer]

I think that you're missing out if you only have one set of sheets. We have different sheets for the different seasons. We just switched to our flannel sheets for the winter and it's so much nicer getting into bed in a cold room with flannel sheets on the bed then the cotton non-flannel sheets we use for the warm months.

[Stephen J]

Given the choice between a fried egg and one that is poached, the former always wins. The butter (or fat of choice) enables a smooth transit. Combination of butter with yolk IS manna from somewhere.

I don’t have a view on all the sciency stuff that appears here, even though it is fun to read.

Air-roasted coffee is also a necessity, my favourite is the type that is supplied by Michael Allpress which he calls “Art”.

NB: In either case, poached or fried, decent hand sliced white bread is a necessity.

[almostinfamous]

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

my favourite quip about the size of the universe remains this classic one from Douglas Adams. and it was between a trip to the chemist and your post that I was reminded of it. Happy TOP birthday, Mike. Here's to many more.