Upon Visiting Neighboring Solar System

OK let me try and draw you a picture here. The task of jumping from one stationary truck to another should be relatively easy depending on the distance, but this can foresee some difficulty when the trucks are moving.

Now please correct me if I�m wrong (I�ll try to keep it as simple as possible), the earth rotates at its own speed which revolves around the sun and so do all the other planets in the solar system. There for the solar system rotates at a certain speed. So do all solar systems rotate at there own speeds, lets just say for this scenario all solar systems rotate at different speeds i.e. each relevant to their own.

The solar systems in turn revolve around the galaxy.

OK now I want you to picture the �Crazy Dance� or �Tea Cup� rides at a carnival. The cups represent the solar systems and the entire ride is the Galaxy. The Galaxy rotates at its speed while the solar systems rotates at their speeds which will appear to seem much faster.

Now here's where my curiosity gets the better of me. Will you be able to make a jump (Cause you won�t make it walking) from one tea cup to the other?
In other words what are the factors involved when traveling in your spaceship from one solar system to another?

Let's hear some theories on this

Thanks for the post, thats a very interesting concept. I had not considered that before.

My thinking is this. Planets within Solar systems have varying orbits due to varying gravatational pulls from planets depending on size. Therefore the effects of planets "pull" decrease as the range from from the planet increases. I assume the same for the solar system if considered to be one entity.

So as you leave a solar system the effects it has on a craft would slowly dissapate. Therefore as you approach a new system, the effects would slowly creep up on you rather than instanly spinning you off with it. The effects would be gradual and therefore could be compensated for in real time navigation.

The gaps are massive between solar systems so the same effects as the teacup ride would not happen so instantanously.

Thanx for the input. So there is great distance between Solar systems to sustain gravitational equilibrium, thus the theory of a black whole in the centre of the galaxy; which bring another question to mind.

What is in the centre of the Universe keeping the Galaxies in orbit? Plus if the Universe is expanding then that would mean that the Center's (What ever is in the center) gravitational pull is decreasing. HMMM what will happen when this force eventually die? Will the universe stop turning???


[edit on 14-9-2004 by DayOfRevelation]

Its an old link but take a look at the following page:

www.ettnet.se...

It may give you some way of visualizing the rotation of the universe, if there even is one.

Here is another way.
I've posted it before, but I feel it's relevant to this topic.

The Galaxy song from "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life"

spoken

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,

sung
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough,

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And reolving at nine thousand miles an hour.
It's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
'Round the sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at fourteen thousand miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred million stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

waltz

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, that's the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!


-- Eric Idle




Also, I don' know that there is "something" at the center of the universe keeping Galaxies in Orbit..I've only seen and read that There are "local groups" of Galaxies that seem to have some gravitaional influence on one another..

There is no "center" of the universe that we know of(yet?). It could be all the gallaxies just share a central point of mass. For example there are many binary star systems where both stars "orbit" the center point between their two masses.

Any speculation as to the universe on a grand scale is iffy since we really don't know much about it yet.

Remeber our view of the universe is based on just light (and other em radiation) that is OLD. When we say we found a gallaxy 13 billion light years away, we mean we have spotted light that seems to be a gallaxy that was 13 billion light year away 13 billion years ago. Even looking up at the visible stars in the milkyway is iffy. If the other side of the gallaxy was destroyed by some event we wouldn't know about it for another 50,000 years or so as stars started to wink out.

so first off, props to spacedoubt for monty python, especially the galaxy song.

there is no center of the universe, the whole imagine its a balloon thing. if the universe is a huge balloon, we exist on the 'surface' of that balloon. the center, of course, is in the middle of the balloon, which doesnt really exist. also, theres no real way to prove any point in the universe isnt the center, every point has an equal claim.

if the universe collapses or doesnt, itll depend on the amount of mass in the universe, avg density of the universe, however u wanna represent it.

if u wanna move, u dont just slingshot yourself. u aim. and if the target is a moving target, u allow for that. and, if its far away, u hope it aint dead yet. then again, if its that far away, u wonder why ur going there.