News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on When Hubble stared at nothing for 100 hours (2015). Parent comment

Re:When Hubble stared at nothing for 100 hours (2015) by pixl97 on Friday July 24, 2020 @03:27PM (#23943493)
Whales would be visible, along with all the life chemicals, so the analogy isnt that great.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When Hubble stared at nothing for 100 hours (2015) by jstanley on Friday July 24, 2020 @03:43PM (#23943648)
I've flown in planes a handful of times, looked down at the ocean on plenty of opportunities, and never observed any whales. I'd say the analogy is perfectly great.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When Hubble stared at nothing for 100 hours (2015) by Ma8ee on Friday July 24, 2020 @04:14PM (#23943936)
If the water was as transparent as space, whales and large schools of fish would certainly be apparent.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When Hubble stared at nothing for 100 hours (2015) by saagarjha on Friday July 24, 2020 @05:22PM (#23944603)
Space isn't quite transparent, and a closer analogy would be to ask if you can spot bacteria and other microorganisms because something sentient the size of a whale "scaled up to space" would be unrecognizable as such to us.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When Hubble stared at nothing for 100 hours (2015) by Ma8ee on Friday July 24, 2020 @05:32PM (#23944698)
> Space isn't quite transparent

On Earth scale it is for all practical purposes.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When Hubble stared at nothing for 100 hours (2015) by doctor_eval on Friday July 24, 2020 @08:21PM (#23945830)
Space whales!
[ Parent | on HN ]