Our Sun from somewhere else... M67 (APOD 09 Aug 2007)

[Hipperholme Pete]

Seeing today's picture, and reading that the Messier 67 Star cluster is "about the same age and with about the same elemental abundances as the Sun" made me think that one of those stars may have an earth like planet which may have developed life in the same way that Earth has.
As the brain is on neutral this early, the thought occured to me that they may also have an internet, interest in Astronomy and even an Astonomy Picture of the Day.
If they did, and they were looking our way, what would they see?
OK, so I know it would be a splash of white dots that is too complex for the brain to remember and comprehend the exact pattern (well my brain anyway), but has anyone ever mapped out the (3 Dimentional) positions of the starts (excuse my ignorance on this, I'm sure there is a method by which this has been started, and yes I know there are zillions of stars, and yes I know time makes a difference because the distances are so vast, but bear with me), and then created a (presumably) computer generated view pointing towards our earth / sun of what a human type being might see if they were standing on such a planet?
Would such research be worth doing, or would it simply produce an interesting picture that we would all (or mostly) go "oooh, that's interesting" and move onto the Dilbert cartoon a few seconds later?

[jimmysnyder]

has anyone ever mapped out the (3 Dimentional) positions of the starts. ... Would such research be worth doing, or would it simply produce an interesting picture that we would all (or mostly) go "oooh, that's interesting" and move onto the Dilbert cartoon a few seconds later?

Yes, yes, and you tell me. Here are a few sites, but there are others.

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/250lys.html
http://www.projectrho.com/starmap.html
http://www.dilbert.com

[Hipperholme Pete]

Seeing what another lifeform might from another place - wow.
Thanks!
BTW, I am looking now, but do I guess those maps don't make allowances for the fact that stars are burning at different brightnesses based on their age - i.e what a viewer who is a few million light years away will actually see is what our sun was like a few million years ago. I don't think they take this into account as the maps I've looked at so far don't go that far out - only a couple of hundres light years, and a couple of hundred year is minisculely insignificant in astonomical time and space, so the difference in brightness (or luminosity) would be minisculely insignificant too...

[mfman40]

I love the APOD of M67. Looking at so many stars, I wonder how many of those would have habital planets. I also noticed the lack of any discernable galaxies in that particular field of view, anybody know why?

[jimmysnyder]

BTW, I am looking now, but do I guess those maps don't make allowances for the fact that stars are burning at different brightnesses based on their age - i.e what a viewer who is a few million light years away will actually see is what our sun was like a few million years ago.

True, but a few million years is not much time in the lifetime of the sun. In your original post, you wondered what the sun would look like from M67 which is only about 3000 light years away.

I don't think they take this into account as the maps I've looked at so far don't go that far out.

The first link I provided allows you to zoom in and out to the scale of the entire universe. But 'they' would see roughly the same thing we see, into the past as it were.

You asked for a map that would show the sun from the perspective of other stars and I have not provided such a map. I only indicate that the data exists for such a map to be created.

[Qev]

Celestia is a neat 3D program along these lines, also. Though like the others mentioned, it too does not take any light-speed delays into account.

[Pete]

Pictures like that really make you want to know, eh? Man, first contact will be a party if and when it happens.

My reasoned guess as to why no galaxies appear in the photo is that the exposure time was too short. If a higher-power telescope were trained on an apparently black portion of the photo for a long time, it would image myriad galaxies, Hubble Deep Field style.

[emc]

Is this some sort of stellar herding activity???

Maybe there is something cool there stars like???

[jimmysnyder]

From the Celestia page:

Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

So I guess we can take a peek at the earth from M67 after all.

[emc]

On the subject of 3D space objects...

http://www.distantsuns.com/index_ds_app_help_link.html

I am just learning my way around and this tool is a great help! I just wish it would run on my Precision 490

[Nancy D]

The paragraph says the cluster is 12 light years across and contains 500 stars. I looked for some info, and if I interpret it correctly, there are about 25 stars within 12 light years from us. So, if we were on a planet in that cluster, what a sight the night sky would be!

[emc]

It is interesting that those stars are clustered... really draws your attention doesn't it... I understand that there are galaxy clusters also.

So, if we were on a planet in that cluster, what a sight the night sky would be!

It is amazing how technology is helping us to see so much and we can view the images from our PCs. Still, I know you are right in that the view would be far more grand from a closer vantage point.