Taking nothing for granted.

Hosted by Steve Nerlich.

Dear Cheap Astronomy – Is space really empty?

Well, the universe is filled with stars, planets and galaxies, but sure all the big gaps between those things are mostly empty. Although, let's not forget dark matter. It's likely to have a wider and denser distribution than visible matter, since we think there's four times more of it than there is of light matter - but all we can really say is 'we think' since we can't see dark matter and we don't actually know what it is.

Dear Cheap Astronomy – Just how strange is reality?

So, this is an unusual question insofar as the word strange implies a divergence from normal - whereas reality is by definition normal. Therefore, whatever strangeness it may possess is mostly defined by our own subjective expectations. Every day the Sun comes up and when we make a cup of tea, the water still boils the way that it has ever other day and the tea bags and milk you bought the day before haven't spontaneously dematerialized overnight. These are things we consider normal and indeed represents the apparent blandness of reality - something that can only be spiced up by the application of our imagination.

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