"The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" Turns 30 (And Astronomers Find '42' -the Answer to the Ultima


	"The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" Turns 30 (And Astronomers Find '42' -the Answer to the Ultima

tabsey

10-13-2009 5:17 AM

258 views

tags:

space

tabsey says:

Bit like a watch turning into an aeroplane. Very coincidental.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/dd831e1b-3f01-4645-a497-cfadb5689b1c/B9A2050A-FFC2-47AA-A6BC-38CF5B6911E8/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-turns-30-astronomers-confirms-42-the-answer-to-the-ultimate-ques-1.html" href="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-turns-30-astronomers-confirms-42-the-answer-to-the-ultimate-ques-1.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.dailygalaxy.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-turns-30-astronomers-confirms-42-the-answer-to-the-ultimate-ques-1.html">It has now been thirty years since October 12, 1979 when The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy novelization of a popular British radio series, first saw print. Douglas Adams, our icon of humorous geek literature, would write four sequels to it, and would, tragically die of a heart attack at the age of 49</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-turns-30-astronomers-confirms-42-the-answer-to-the-ultimate-ques-1.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.dailygalaxy.com/img/57A0180A-05E6-4F75-85DE-DBA966FB6AF2" alt="301047921_0" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-turns-30-astronomers-confirms-42-the-answer-to-the-ultimate-ques-1.html">But WTF, Douglas Adams really did nail it! Once again, art anticipates science: after pondering the weighty question of the mass of the Milky Way galaxy, astronomers have come up with an answer: 42! Our galaxy weighs three times 10 to the power of 42 kilograms - a number written as 3 followed by 42 zeroes</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-turns-30-astronomers-confirms-42-the-answer-to-the-ultimate-ques-1.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.dailygalaxy.com/img/9342282B-2BB9-4488-B450-EA55A8395868" alt="Dontpanic_1024" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-turns-30-astronomers-confirms-42-the-answer-to-the-ultimate-ques-1.html"><DIV>It seems esoteric but knowing the weight of the galaxy - the amount of matter it contains - is key to solving the nature of so-called dark matter. Unlike the "ordinary matter" of stars and planets, scientists have only hunches about the nature of the invisible material that, along with "dark energy", they estimate makes up 90-99 per cent of the universe.</DIV></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/B9A2050A-FFC2-47AA-A6BC-38CF5B6911E8/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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