Photo caption: Earth as seen by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it flew by our planet on August 2 2005.

This post is a Dr. Jeff Speaks Out.

This is crossposted at the Huffington Post HERE and at the Space Tweep Society Blog HERE.

Don’t let your seemingly vast experience as an inhabitant of this world fool you. It’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of self-importance. Let me explain.

You likely live in a house or apartment on a street, and in a community that’s part of some town, maybe even some major urban area. Your community is likely part of a much larger state or province of one of the nations of Earth—which are themselves nothing more than imaginary constructs of human society. Your country is also likely assigned to one of the continental masses whose sum total of land area is just 29% of the planet’s surface. You are small and the Earth is seemingly vast, as if we humans to Earth are just so many micro-organisms scurrying about each day (each rotation of Earth), and following rules of social engagement that often defy logic.

It’s a story that at a most fundamental level defines your address. It may be all the address you need to ship a package to your friend across the ocean. But it won’t cut it with the intergalactic post office. As I said, don’t let your experience and perception fool you. It’s the rest of the address of which most Earthlings are unaware. For so many reasons it’s also the most important part of the address.

This seemingly vast Earth is but a tiny planet. (By comparison, over 1,000 Earths fit inside Jupiter.) Earth is one of eight planets orbiting the Sun—a tiny star by star standards—as part of a planetary System called the Solar System. The Sun resides in the Solar Neighborhood of stars, a small smattering of stars found in the Orion Spur—a nondescript little corner of the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way is a vast city of stars, with enough stars to give 50 to every human on Earth. Right now, you, your family, and the rest of your race are orbiting just one of those stars.

The Milky Way is one of two large galaxies in the Local Group of 25-30 galaxies. The other large one, Andromeda, is on a collision course with ours. And the cosmic debris-field that is the Local Group of galaxies resides not too far cosmically speaking from the Virgo Cluster of 1,300 to 2,000 galaxies. The Local Group and Virgo Cluster are just two of the 100 to 200 or so groups and clusters of galaxies making up the Local Supercluster of more than 50,000 galaxies. The Local Supercluster—a small supercluster—is one of MILLIONS of superclusters that are woven together to form the largest structures ever seen—Galactic Filaments. And all this comprises the Observable Universe—what we believe is a remarkably insignificant portion of the Universe that nature, by law, allows us to see. Beyond what is observable, the Universe may truly be infinite.

So using myself to summarize—

I live in a house on a street in a town in the State of Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC, in the USA, in North America, on Earth, in the Solar System, in the Solar Neighborhood, in the Orion Spur of the Milky Way Galaxy, in the Local Group of Galaxies, near the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, in the Local Supercluster of galaxies in the tiny corner of the Universe we like to call the Observable Universe.

That is our address. It makes the often human perception of our reality as the center of cosmic activity …. just laughable. You always know the most about your own neighborhood. But that also leads you to conclude your neighborhood is somehow important. In truth, it is only important because YOU live there. And YOU obviously think YOU are important. So please think about this … for vast numbers of humans, our perception, our daily life, is driven by self-importance, a remarkable lack of humility, ignorance of—even disinterest in—a greater context of existence which our machines of exploration have brought into crisp focus, and for many, a sense that embracing God is the righteous and comforting thing to do—but does not require taking time to look at the majesty beyond Earth. And while we burn precious, non-renewable calories watching “reality” television, following the lives of the rich and famous, acquiring lots of things, deciding which of us is better or more deserving or more moral, and buying into the distorted views of what our societies have our children embrace as heroes and role models, our world—the spaceship that affords us the view of majesty—is coming under attack.

The microbes called human kill one another because each group, each (bacterial) culture, thinks they are more important than the other. It is self-importance taken to the extreme. Their self-serving technology is modifying the environment of the planet, not only threatening their existence for generations to come (how do they do that to their children?), but puts at grave risk countless species that don’t have the gift of recognizing the majesty of the cosmos. Isn’t it ironic that the only species on Earth that does possess the gifts of intelligence and tool-making, does not collectively care about its world, and collectively squanders these gifts?

So watch the movie above, taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it flew by in 2005. Watch as the Earth recedes into the cold, black void of space. Imagine the nearly 7 billion humans scurrying around on its surface. How many of them recognize that the remarkable spaceship they are on is NOT owned by them? It never was. But because of their technology, they are now, by natural decree, stewards of this spaceship for good or ill. Do they understand their responsibilities to the spaceship, to all its occupants, and to themselves? For if this tiny blue world is laid to waste, the geologic Age of Self-Importance will be over, the rest of the Universe will surely not care … and I fear God will not come to the rescue.

A penny for your thoughts …..

Photo and movie credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington. For more information about the photo and movie visit the MESSENGER web site.

This post is a Dr. Jeff’s Weekly Challenge.

Welcome humans nice folks. We have assumed you are here for the answer to Weekly Challenge 6. Men in black team #26,342 is therefore now en route to your home. If you don’t know why, before reading any further we recommend (with great strength) that you read Weekly Challenge 6. Our team is rolling (very fast).

And now the answer—

Last week in the Cosmic Kitchen, Chef Jeff pushed the green button on the pasta press, and a single strand of Earth spaghetti was created that just stretched across the 93 billion light-year diameter of the observable universe.

What was the diameter of the spaghetti required?  1 millimeter (0.04 inches)

It is not microscopically thin. It is not the diameter of a fire hose. It is precisely the diameter of—angel hair pasta, a thin spaghetti. Go to your local store buy a box and measure it for yourself. By the way, help support us by purchasing our sponsor’s brand of angel hair. Look for Cosmic Kitchen Pasta #42 available in most supermarkets.

We also submit for your consideration that this was not magic, or some remarkable coincidence. In the Cosmic Kitchen we have the ability to realign the laws of nature. In this case, we have ensured that the Earth, when squeezed into a single strand of Earth spaghetti capable of spanning the observable universe, has the thickness of  … spaghetti. We hope you humans nice folks appreciate the effort. We wanted your planet to still be recognizable to you, at least as today’s special entree.

We also hope you have enjoyed your visit to the Cosmic Kitchen. Its existence is a closely guarded secret, and we are honored to have shared it with you. The men in black will be knocking on your door at any moment. Won’t you please help them fill out our survey? And remember that you can receive a special gift if you answer their final question correctly. Since we have spent this last week together, I now consider us friends, and I want to see you receive your special gift. So remember I gave you the answer to the question last week. Just say “cheese.”

How did Chef Jeff come up with the answer?

The volume of the Earth, a sphere, is to be transformed into the volume of a strand of spaghetti, a cylinder. Recognizing that the volumes are equal, here is how it is done:

1. The volume of a sphere is: 4/3 x pi  x R³ where:

pi = 3.14

R is the radius of the sphere, in this case the radius of Earth:

6,378 km = 6.378 x 10⁶ meters

2. The volume of a cylinder is: pi x r² x h   where:

r is the radius of the cylinder, here the radius of the spaghetti, which is to be calculated

h is the height of the cylinder, here the length of the spaghetti:

93 billion light-years  = 9.3 x 10¹⁰ light-years

converting to meters (see hint last week):

9.3 x 10¹⁰ light-years  x  9.46 x 10¹⁵ meters / light-year  =  8.8 x 10²⁶ meters

3. Setting the two volumes equal yields the equation (note the pi cancels out):

4/3 x R³ =  r² x h

4. Now enter the following data into the equation and solve for r, the radius of the spaghetti:

R = 6.378 x 10⁶ meters

h = 8.8 x 10 ²⁶ meters

You will find r =  0.00063 meters = 0.63 millimeters

Thus the diameter of the spaghetti =  2 x r  =  1.2 millimeters, which is the diameter of angel hair pasta.

This post is a Dr. Jeff’s Weekly Challenge.

On a recent tour of CBS, I got separated from my group, got pretty lost, and ended up in a dusty storage room filled with nightmarish props that really creeped me out. In the corner I found an old envelope marked “Rod Serling’ with a script inside. Wow. I decided to turn it into a BotU Weekly Challenge and introduce a new character kinda like, well, me. (It is my Blog.)

First a word from our Sponsor—

Come back Monday, August 24. for the solution to this Weekly Challenge.

Come back Friday, August 21, for a new post “The Scale of the Solar System—A Voyage in Corpus Christi”

Submitted for your consideration, I invite you to accompany me to a Cosmic Kitchen where each entree is of galactic proportions, and ingredients are folded together with forces both unimaginable and seemingly limitless. As we enter the infinite spaces allocated for baking, a solar-system-sized pasta press has just been loaded with planet Earth, and an ejector plate has been inserted which has but a single hole in the center with an adjustable diameter. Chef Jeff has closed the massive door behind the planet, and now the only way out for Earth is through that small opening—for today’s special in the Cosmic Kitchen is Earth spaghetti.

Before pushing the unassumingly small green start button on the pasta press, the diameter of the spaghetti must be set. Once the hydraulics are engaged no adjustments can be made—for the forces at work could result in a catastrophic accident. It has happened in the past. 350,550 years ago the pasta press exploded, planet was everywhere, and the kitchen had to be closed down for cleaning by precisely 10,000,042 workers. (Note that in the Cosmic Kitchen, 42 must be included in the solution to everything).

Given the potential consequences, setting the diameter of the spaghetti required Chef Jeff to consult Cosmic Kitchen’s head chef. Her reply—adjust the diameter so that the single strand of Earth spaghetti could just stretch across the entire observable universe.

Back in the Cosmic Kitchen’s research library, with rows of workstations extending to the horizon, Chef Jeff goes on line to determine the size of the observable universe. He’s come across this before. It came up when he was asked to keep folding a humongous sheet of paper until its thickness could extend to the edge of the observable universe. He remembered the link to the web site with the answer. The diameter of the observable universe is 93 billion light-years.

Chef Jeff (originally trained as an astrophysicist, but thought cooking was more lucrative) now knows that the entire volume of Earth is to be stretched into the volume of a single strand of spaghetti that just spans the 93 billion light-year diameter of the observable universe. A quick calculation gives him the required diameter for the spaghetti.

Back at the pasta press, he transports to the ejector plate, sets the spaghetti’s diameter, and transports back to the control room where he stands ready to push the green button.

Here now the challenge—

By reading this, you have accepted an invitation to be one of the spectators in the Cosmic Kitchen’s gallery. Before Chef Jeff pushes the button, you are asked to submit your guess for the diameter of the spaghetti he will be making today. Leave your guess as a comment below.

If you are in fact brave enough to undertake the calculation before submitting your guess (and you know how to use scientific notation) then here is your hint:

What is the volume of a sphere?

What is the volume of a cylinder?

1 light-year = 9.46 x 10¹⁵ meters

After the answer is posted next week, please wait by your door for my colleagues to arrive. You will easily recognize them. They will be men in black. They will be interviewing you on the quality of this post, and will be taking notes with a rather interesting pen. Please take a close look at their pen. They will also ask you a question to see if you should receive a special gift for taking the survey. Let me help. I know what they will likely ask: “what milk product is often aged before being brought to market.” You should say “cheese.”

Answer now posted here!