Sunday, June 11, 2017

The Local Astronomical Bubble


Recently I found out our solar system is in a distinct bubble of gas with actual borders and tunnels into other bubbles. Look at the wikipedia article on Local Bubble and you'll begin to understand: Our galaxy is not a uniform vacuum; rather there are distinct areas or volumes or maybe 4d space where particle density and the temperature of vacuum change. Our solar system has been in a particular region of this particular bubble for about 44,000 years. When you look at a section of galactic space, a 3d model, it looks like a complex manifold. Why am I not surprised.



Philosophically, this means that our conception of space, at least this layman's conception, has been fundamentally flawed. Does it make a difference? To me it does, because we now seem to have a scale of time and space we are within. Also it gives credence to the possibility of different continuums than our own.



And finally, it's important because this knowledge implies how much we do NOT know about how our reality operates.

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