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If you were the boss of a group of intergalactic explorers, what would you use as the "North" on the space compasses? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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On Earth, the cardinal directions are straightforward. The arrow on a compass points to the nearest magnetic pole. You can then use it to travel anywhere on Earth.

In space, the idea of anything being “central” enough to be used as a “North” (since the universe has no center) or being fixated enough to not somehow pose issues is more convoluted.

If you were a pioneer of space exploration, what would your “North” be?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Why would you assume humans are the first intergalactic travelers? The universe is 14 billion years old.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Because as big as space is, time is bigger. Humans have existed for only the most recent nanosecond, and we're only just figuring out how to leave this rock. We're either going to figure out intergalactic space travel, or we might just obliterate ourselves and kill all life on the planet.

Crossing paths with another intergalactic species would be like if two different people each threw a grain of sand into the air in any desert or beach on earth at some point in the last 10,000 years, and the two grains of sand collide.

If we do find intelligent life out there, it will probably be because we have developed some intergalactic broadcast signal, and whatever comes for us might share their star maps or they might just be looking for a snack. Either way, it would take them thousands of years to hear our signal and get to us.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

The post says I'm the boss, so as a human I'm going to pick my own home galaxy as the reference. Alien species would have their own coordinate systems but it's not that hard to convert between them, or to specify which reference you're using. We'll already be converting between planetary/system/galactic/intergalactic coordinate systems all the time so it's not much harder to account for a few more.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

you orient yourself based on the galaxy you're in.
if you went to a new planet and picked up a compass would you expect it to point to your home planets North? No...