That might have meant Neptune and Uranus. One is tipped quite a lot and the other is all the way over on its side.

Anything that's rotating has an axis, that just means the center of rotation. Most of the planets have axes that more or less line up with the Sun - they were born that way. The exception is Uranus, which is tipped over on its side. Nobody knows why, but probably something really big crashed into it, long ago.

But... dark matter also doesn't interact with normal matter, so how would it create friction?

However, the red shift would be extremely small. Any realistic velocity would be a tiny fraction of the speed of light.

Also, light and radio are the same stuff - just a different frequency

Is it? I don't know the number of stars in the average globular cluster. I guess the rest of you do. *hanging my head*

An incredible half-million stars? The galaxy has what, 100 billion? I guess numbers are hard.

Sure it can, that's not even fringe science - it's well-established. Don't discount the effect of gravity; it may be weak, but it's strong enough to pull the ocean all out of shape.

Also, the moon is a great big light in the sky. Light affects behavior and sleep - but not through your ears..

Also, a rock that came in at a steep angle would probably bury itself.

Also, they would have to land at a shallow angle, which leaves them closer to the surface... maybe?

From what I've read, it would be pretty intense, and no way to turn it off. Add to that a travel time of several years, and the whole project seems unlikely

Remove the word "strange" and it's almost not click bait!

Question doesn't really make sense. Verb has no subject. Who or what is "going to the very limit?"

What you might be asking is if a neutron star gradually accretes mass, will it reach a threshold and collapse into a singularity, and the answer is yes, in theory. A bunch of gravitational waves would result, and I think scientists have detected waves with the right pattern - but there's no way to directly observe this.

True, and maybe the galaxy will be settled by Tardigrades.

Well that's the way it is in Traveller - but that's TTRPG, not reality. All of the "Major Races" started colonizing the stars in about the same century, so that when they find each other, both sides are strong. That makes for a better game, but there's no reason it's likely to happen.

Another thing I haven't seen mentioned: We spent almost all of our million years in the Stone Age. What if there are a dozen species we would recognize as "intelligent" sprinkled throughout the galaxy... and they're all hunter-gatherers?

Maybe we don't see aliens is because there are no aliens

It seems to me if there is life in the frozen ocean, being blasted into space might make it be not-alive.

Maybe it starts at 12 on the dial.

It will never reach us. Lonely thought.

It's just possible that we see no aliens because there are no aliens. Simplest explanation.

Million, billion, zillion, whatever.

Why is that logic so appealing? "You can spend zillions on xxx, when you could spend it on the poor."

Why not do both? The answer, of course, is rocket or no rocket, the poor get nothing.

Well it was only recently observed, and I don't think there's anything but a name - dark energy. But a name is not an explanation - it may as well be named Bob.

You should write that up. I'll bet the book rights would be bank.

Stop that! We're still using our atmosphere!