mm yes, yes, I agree

how to imagine the 10th dimension https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ca4miMMaCE

Michio Kaku aliens and the three types of civilization (this one is kinda goofy but its interesting to think about) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0sb6uhCs_U

an interesting story is "the last question" by Isaac Asimov

ok.

TED Talks are always worth the time to watch/listen to. Thank you for sharing these.

I think it's cool that the number one argument for life existing elsewhere in the universe is just due to the huge fucking size of it. There's no reason why we should be special.

Also kinda cool is that quite a few scientists agree the first contact we're gonna have with other life is via rovers or other recon machines - we're unlikely to meet other life face-to-face. It would be pretty scary though if we ran into another more sophisticated robot (or thing) while we were exploring space.

Just my 2 cents, I really love theories about extraterrestrial life.

http://htwins.net/scale2/

wow that's really helpful i have a decent understanding of the dimensions that were said to have existed from string theory now.

holy shit michio kaku is the man, listening to him is incredible I wish he was immortal so he could experience what he hypothesizes the world will become.

dude check out the vid alosec linked, you'll love it. I think that if we are able to evolve and travel through space more easily, we can come face to face with life on other planets, but like he said if we are not able to see type 1 civilizations on the distant solar systems from us, then most life has probably already died out or very basic.

Astrophysics discussion you say? What would you like to know? Astrophysics is a massive topic but the things that you mentioned either don't relate to astrophysics (string theory) or don't have any rigorous theory behind them yet (multiverse). I can greatly expand upon any cosmological topic that you want (even going into research that I have worked on / know people that are working on) as well as go into a good enough depth for the other primary fields (stellar, structure (large and small), ISM, etc.)

I can also talk about how research gets done and what you want to do in highschool and college to prepare to learn about the topic.

If nobody here has already done so, I'd read a book called Flatland. Also...

https://31.media.tumblr.com/a025a2ebbfd6b58d3b6ed004eca5ce1b/tumblr_n2053v7MyQ1r5zq6ao1_500.gif

https://31.media.tumblr.com/1e8c882545dec73b77514afc35a9b98f/tumblr_n2053v7MyQ1r5zq6ao2_500.gif

Please do

If i were to think of one thing i would want to do as a job or something i would be an astrophysicist. Shits so fucking interesting.

do it you wont

This and it'd be nice if you could go into the formation of galaxies as well.

http://vimeo.com/34884787 this video was a big factor in helping me decide to carry on studying after my BSc in Natural Sciences and take a Physics route for my MSc, really gets you thinking.. especially after a fat one or two!
Highly recommend Professor Brian Cox's new series Human Universe which is currently being aired (3rd episode shown this week) in the UK. Especially if you enjoyed both of his 'Wonders of' series. Definitely better than the new Cosmos which I think was a massive let down.

OH NO, SCIENCE

i'm in the 4th week of my 4 year physics degree, i'll come back in 4 years ...

I'll go through galaxy formation later today when I have more time.

I'll also go through research later as well, this response took all of my extra lunch break time.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to comment on the theory side of astro, I've never been in a theory group because I like experimental so much.

I guess I'll start from the beginning with what you can do to prepare yourself in HS, first with an anecdote about my experience. My high school was in the bottom 2/3rds of the state and offered nothing past AP Calc AB and AP Physics B (for anybody who doesn't know ap courses this corresponds to Calc I and Physics without Calc, also known as physics for non-majors). About the only thing decent about the school was that there were programming courses available each year (that I also ended up taking).

I was able to get into a top university and took the advanced lower division physics track which contained about as much math that could possibly be done with the topic at hand. Pretty much every student in that class had taken through Calc III (multivar calc) and both Physics C (the calc version of Physics B covering Mechanics and E+M) so I was at a severe knowledge gap below these students. However, as you will find with most physics text books the math is all covered and all the physics are built from the ground up, so outside of having to put in a lot of work to learn the math (that was to be formally taught to me a year down the road) I was still able to achieve decent marks in the class.

Moral of the story is, take as many physics and calc courses that your school offers, but don't feel like you won't be able to succeed when you find out you are the only person who came from a school that doesn't teach physics.

As for things that you can do before college that directly relate to astro, the biggest one would be to learn programming (with the reasoning coming with how research is done in astro). I recommend as formal a programming course that you can take, but if your school doesn't offer anything at least learn it through some online courses (codeacademy, university online courses, etc.) The biggest experimental language by far is python (using numpy and scipy libraries) although there are still some old people who refuse to move away from IDL (a pretty crappy programming language that has some really cool astro features). Most computational astro people use C, with some using FORTRAN, although if you want to learn FORTRAN you might want to seek a medical professional.

Outside of programming you might want to get involved in a local astronomy club, many of which are hosted by either local colleges or just amateurs who really like space. It is nice to take a step back every once in a while to just look at things in the sky. I personally do it so rarely that things you would expect astronomers to know like ecplises, meteor showers, and comets I learn about for the first time the day after when either my parents, friends, or now my stream chat mention if I saw them. The only event that I sometimes pay attention to are new moons since those are the best telescope nights.

Additionally you might want to learn LaTeX, since all your papers will be written in it, not to mention if you submit an essay/resume (e.g. for your university application) using it you will get some extra attention since it will look so much better than anybody else's. You also will probably want to familiarize yourself with linux since pretty much every computer in astro is running a distro of linux.

Lol fortran

Cheers mate, I'd never thought about how important programming must be for astrophysics. I appreciate the information (:

Mmm yes, shallow AND pedantic.

Not quite sure how you think I am being shallow with my response and I certainly wasnt trying to brag with my anecdote. The purpose of that was to show how pretty much anybody can go into astro even without taking (or probably in a lot of people's case can't even take) high level physics, math, and programming courses in high school. Me mentioning that I took the advanced courses at a top university was to add even more credibility to my above statement, because I am of the opinion that people wouldn't believe me near as much if I went to some no name community college taking algebra and general science my first semester out of highschool.

stochastic officially calling out everyone that goes to community college for not being smart

It's a joke from Family Guy, which actually posting one in a thread about physics and string theory probably makes you worse than hitler