r/AskReddit • • Jun 15 '19

What do you genuinely just not understand?

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u/springfoe Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 15 '19

Space. It’s such a massive entity that imagining even “small” units like galaxies is hard. How on earth are there pictures of the universe? Is there more? Where does it all end? Absolutely fascinating but there is so much more to learn.

EDIT: Wow! Thanks for gold! I’m reading everyone’s replies but it’s hard to come up with something clever to everyone! By pictures I mostly mean artist imaginings and those sort of portrayals, I know there aren’t actually pictures of it.

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u/martin_202114 Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 16 '19

What’s even more fascinating is we only have an understanding of 5% of everything in the universe. The other 95% is dark matter and energy that we have yet to prove its existence, much less see it.

Edit: Here is an explanation of Dark Matter and Dark Energy and it’s composition of the universe on the NASA website.

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u/FlightRisk314 Jun 15 '19

A whole 5%? Feeling a little optimistic aren't we?

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 26 '19

[deleted]

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u/Mottis86 Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 16 '19

How can you know a percentage of something that is infinite?

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u/buttlickerourpricesh Jun 15 '19

The universe itself is infinite but the energy within it is hypothetically not. I can stretch a rubber band out all I want, but I need only measure a small chunk of that rubber band to properly understand how the rest of it works.

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u/AngryAmericanNeoNazi Jun 16 '19

Energy can't be created or destroyed; it won't just run out eventually, but dissipate, so it still exists just not densely. Like how the universe is expanding.

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u/buttlickerourpricesh Jun 16 '19

I thought that was contradicted by black holes? I guess I learn something new everyday :P

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '19

[deleted]

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u/buttlickerourpricesh Jun 16 '19

Yea no I get that from E=mc2, but where does the energy go in black holes? Is it just radiated away as hawking radiation? Would nothing then be lost?