Comments on: Universcale

Universcale

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:02:04 -0800

[flash]. I know, it's on a corporate site, and you have to sit through some pretentious Japanglish while it loads, but being able to use your mousewheel to scroll from femtometers up to the 100 billion lightyear scale is dazzling. I love cosmic zooms. Remember to pray that there's intelligent life in space, because there's bugger-all down here on Earth, except for folks like Metafilter's own kokogiak, who shows us everything in the solar system bigger than 200 miles in diameter.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:11:00 -0800

Sounds really really awesome, but not only did it not work and not only did it kill Firefox (2, with Flash 9), it actually brought down my whole OS. Linux, no less.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:20:54 -0800

Stav, this is awesome. Corporate site or no, it's really really cool. I learned stuff even just about the planets, by seeing them in this way. I do wish there were a few more items in here, like planets outside of the solar system.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:30:40 -0800

Very cool, thanks.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:31:17 -0800

Not just ANY corporate site, stavros; freakin' NIKON!! (Proud D70 owner; employed in the sub-mircon realm.

By: edd

edd — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:31:22 -0800

Some of the scales look funny. How do you fit all those chromosomes into a sperm cell for example?

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:31:25 -0800

)

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:37:11 -0800

some pretentious Japanglish Pretentious it was, but I'm not sure it qualifies as Japanglish. Just slightly awkward usages, like they should've hired a better translator: nothing like the old glory days of real Japanglish, where you'd get that certain kind of brilliantly twisted, nutty and hilarious prose that would send you searching for your pen and notebook so you could copy it down. You just don't see so much of that anymore, which is a shame, actually... Nice links, by the way! The Nikon site is cool. And I was glad the YouTube zoomout (with Hangul subtitles!) didn't start (for once!) in New York City, but rather in Venice. Lovely town!

By: the dief

the dief — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:09:53 -0800

Hey DU, I'm on Linux with Flash 9; no problems here. Awesome site too.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:15:44 -0800

Good news: No crash Bad news: Endlessly "transferring data" :(

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:19:57 -0800

Note also (from kokogiak's infographic) that Quoaor, at 1260km diameter, may actually be the home of Metafilter's own quonsar, thus completing the Circle of Life. it actually brought down my whole OS. Linux, no less. Thus showing the power of the universe to totally blow your mind!

By: sambosambo

sambosambo — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:30:04 -0800

The IMAX film Cosmic Voyage had a great zoom where you went from outside the Milky Way all the way into the nucleus of an atom. Great zoomy fun for all, but unless you have the 8-story home-theater set-up I'd skip the rental. And on a somewhat-related topic: Starship Dimensions shows the relative sizes of all your favorite sci-fi ships and vehicles. Someone here is bound to find it interesting.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:35:12 -0800

Wonderful stuff—thanks, stav! (I just wish the people who made those Cosmic Zooms didn't feel compelled to add the music, whether New Age or SF Triumphalist; isn't the universe impressive enough by itself?)

By: Cat Pie Hurts

Cat Pie Hurts — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:42:49 -0800

My thanks to Piers Anthony for starting my fascination with the moons of our solar system, to kokoglak for keeping it going and now stavros for reminding me when I forget.

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 07:15:41 -0800

Really enjoyed that. The gap between Mt. Everest and Pluto was perhaps the most helpful way to get space into some perspective. And then, how sad to reach the 'outer limits of the universe' and not be able to keep going. One day, I suppose. Thanks!

By: flippant

flippant — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 07:40:28 -0800

I'm in awe.

By: nanojath

nanojath — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 07:56:02 -0800

mouse... wheel? next you'll be telling me you've got buttons on that thing.

By: edd

edd — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:01:40 -0800

They understated the size of the whole universe too.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:24:37 -0800

Pretty cool. I wish you could toggle then text box on/off, because that showing up all the time is annoying. Very slick, otherwise. Thanks for that Python bit, too. I was looking for that one in particular not three days ago, but got distracted by all the other Monty Python clips and never got around to viewing it.

By: peacay

peacay — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:39:38 -0800

Thanks. Excellent.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:54:17 -0800

Pretty damn awesome breakdown, save the random quote from some guy named A. Asimov. Who?

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:20:10 -0800

Way cool, thanks.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:44:08 -0800

They understated the size of the whole universe too. Huh? The limits of the observable universe are right around 13.7 billion light years. Beyond that, and no one knows; representing the universe at scales larger than that is, at best, pure guesswork. Also, the "I love" Youtube link misrepresents M83 as the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way looks nothing like M83 (well, except for both of them being spiral galaxies); the Milky Way has many prominent arms, while M83 has just two main arms. But I guess the video was made before the recent excellent artist's impression of the Milky Way was created by NASA.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:44:26 -0800

Cool stuff, though, anyway.

By: Uther Bentrazor

Uther Bentrazor — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 10:35:57 -0800

The weird entity next to "Universe", that sorta looks like an upside down mickey mouse head? It has no name, and when you click on it, it just hangs, forever calculating its size.... I'd like to give kudos to Nikon for including God on their representative scale, as a being within the limits of the universe, but incalcuable and inconceivable, leading only to confusion when you try to access it; the user never really sure if it is beyond our understanding, or just a human machination, done so in error... Pretty fucking bold on their part I must say.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:32:53 -0800

This is bangin', stavros. Thanks.

By: ZakDaddy

ZakDaddy — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:50:26 -0800

So what you're saying, Uther Bentrazor, is that God is an upside down Mickey Mouse head? Speaking of product placement; wonder how much that one cost Disney?

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 11:22:17 -0800

Interesting, but no matter how far away you can get from that hula-hoop dancing exhibition at the beginning of the "cosmic zooms" video...it's not far enough.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:14:45 -0800

Awesome post, stavros. Of course, I will read any post with kokogiak links ;-)

By: edd

edd — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 15:42:17 -0800

The limits of the observable universe are right around 13.7 billion light years. No. Light travel time != distance. The universe is expanding. That first light year of the 13.7 billion is now considerably bigger.