B.C. by Mastroianni and Hart for January 13, 2024

True

Fact!

Technically EVERY blast we see is from the past. Since light takes time to reach our eyes after it reflects off an object, everything you see nearby is microseconds in the past. The moon seen from Earth is about 2 seconds in history and tiny Mars viewed through a backyard telescope is 20-40 minutes in the past. The sun in the sky could have exploded 8 minutes ago and you would not know it for another 20-25 seconds.

Add the reaction time for the eyes to send visual information to the brain and the recognition time for the brain to react and recognize what it saw (up to 150 milliseconds) and we can and will NEVER see anything in real time. Nothing is instant, including instant coffee and instant potatoes. ;-)

Correct!. you get a cookie.

Another definition for a blast from the past, it the smell of yesterday’s dinner farts

I just can’t make light of the situation. It’s all in the past.

Those who no learns from the past is doomed to repeats the same mistakes.

Believe it or not, the original working title for the now ended TV series, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ was ‘The Big Blast From the Past’ but maybe rightly the producers thought that title didn’t sound too scientific enough for the average television viewer.

[In actuality, I just made that up!]

So there is no such thing as the present? So where do I live?

O! in the past as always.

I wonder if the regular novas are jealous of the supernovas…

I’m truly amazed at the discoveries astronomers make considering the distances they view studied objects at and that they never can lay hands on what they study. The space telescopes are revolutionizing our understanding of our universe.

The dying days of a star can be explosively spectacular, creating some of the most energetic events in the Universe. Stars do explode, and when that happens they’re known as supernovae. A supernova creates an explosion billions of times brighter than our sun, with enough energy to outshine its own galaxy for weeks.

Instant Karma

instant coffee isn’t too bad, but it’s great for baking cakes and such

Supernova: Big blast, long past.

Campfire log crackling, not so much.

I consider farts to be a blast from the repast. ;-p

There was an 80’s Twilight Zone episode, a crew of space explorers discovered a perfect civilization that had been long extinct due to their sun going nova. The scientists plotted the light, and determined that the nova was the star of Bethlehem. God had wiped out a perfect society to lead the followers to Jesus’ birth.

Preferably the far past. See xkcd dot com slash 2878

I give up … books AND floating stone tablets? Confusing to this Mr. Oxy Moron.

Preferably the distant past. Seeing a supernova from 8 minutes away would mean a Very Bad Day.

Every time we look up at the stars, we are looking into the past.

How about a ’72 Nova?!

It’s a freaking cartoon.