<MSGID_1=3A387=2F22_51bb88b8@fidonet.org>
From: alexander koryagin <koryagin@erec.ru>

Hi, Roy Witt!
I read your message from 14.06.2013 16:15


 ak>> "Planet" means a wandering star.
 RW> Not necessarily. Planets were known to exist even in ancient times
 RW> and they were known to be celestial bodies orbiting the sun. During
 RW> the christian era of 1300 AD or so onward to modern times, it was
 RW> blasphemy to think of anything in space orbiting anything but the
 RW> Earth. Today and before christianity came along, we knew better.

   The thing you have told doesn't refute my words. Ancient people did
not know any difference between stars and planets, except the one that
planets wander in the sky. That's why astrology had deal with both stars
ans planets.

<skipped>
 ak>> Now we know the difference. BTW, in Russian books of scientific
 ak>> fantasy we also have an equivalent of "astronaut", but we call in
 ak>> such a way only those people who travel between stars really.

 RW> When I get into my car and drive off, I'm a 'time traveler',
 RW> difference.

   "Time traveler" is not correct, IMHO. You can't travel through time
in your car, can't you?

<skipped>
 ak>> You do, but the word "space" is not a self-sufficing term. There
 ak>> is space in a kennel, too. When we speak of the space where the
 ak>> stars and planets move, we, if we want to be perfectly correct,
 ak>> speak of the cosmic space. That's why "cosmonaut" is more correct.
 ak>> ;-)

 RW> In reality, when traveling in 'outer' space, aka the universe,
 RW> we're not merely a cosmonaut, but interstellar space travelers.

   Stars and visible matter is just 4 percent of the Universe. The other
part is known as the dark matter. Traveling in space, we can travel
through vast regions where there no stars at all. We can easily say
that stars is an exclusion from the rules. That's why "space traveler"
(or " cosmonaut" is a more cool and long-term definition.

   (Stars and visible matter is just 4 percent...)? (stars is an
exclusion...)?

<skipped>
 ak>> actually, 96 percent of things that exist in the Universe are
 ak>> located in the place which people call vacuum.

 RW> So, is the universe expanding or collapsing?

   For a while it expands with acceleration, like the gas during an
explosion. It is still in the process of explosion - some billions years
elapsed from the beginning is a very short term for such a huge
explosion.

Bye, Roy!
Alexander Koryagin
fido7.english-tutor 2013
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