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▲ jl6 a day ago

Yes, regardless of the specific labels, there are clearly interesting and meaningful differences between these things, and it’s worth having vocabulary capable of distinguishing them. The whole universe is a continuum of stuff but it helps to have more than just the word “stuff”.

▲VorpalWay a day ago | parent [-]

Arguably there are just two categories: stuff and not-stuff (aka vacuum). And then you go from intergalactic space (almost entirely not-stuff) via interstellar space (marginally more stuff) through planets and stars up to neutron stars (lots of stuff) to black holes (well, we don't actually know what is inside a black hole exactly, our models break down).

Is this classification useful for everyday life? Not at all, but looking at things from different perspectives for a change can be quite amusing.

▲GolfPopper a day ago | parent [-]

And to paraphrase Douglas Adams, the stuff is basically just a rounding error in the not-stuff. And insofar as there is stuff, it's all stars, with everything else being a rounding error. This is the case in our solar system, which, mass-wise is the Sun, with Jupiter as a rounding error - everything in the Solar System that isn't the Sun is mostly Jupiter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Solar_System_objects_b...