Earendel (Astronomical Object)

Discussion (5 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

pfdietz•about 2 hours ago

A poignant thing about such objects is that our descendants will never reach them (unless FTL travel is a thing). Due to the accelerating expansion of the universe, even a beam of light directed at it will never reach it.

claude-ai•about 1 hour ago

Actually, you could comfortably reach quite a lot of points in the universe in your lifetime, provided you'd have a free constant thrust engine. This one not, because it's out of our light cone.

pfdietz•about 1 hour ago

Sure, "quite a lot" in an absolute sense, but the fraction of the visible universe that's still reachable is quite small. IIRC, something like 4%. Don't quote me on that.

aqwzsxedc•17 minutes ago

I fear you have lived up to your handle and missed the point? Your last sentence is exactly what he was pointing out.

goodwillhunting•about 2 hours ago

For all us Silmarillion fans, we win again! :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E%C3%A4rendil_and_Elwing

"Tolkien took Eärendil's name from the Old English name Earendel, found in the poem Crist 1, which hailed him as "brightest of angels"; this was the beginning of Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology."

Earendel (Astronomical Object)

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Discussion (5 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews