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Thu 19 Mar, 2009 10:47 am
Hello people I know my little essay is a statement but it is a statement of how really huge the universe our home really is.
I know it belongs in the writing section, but if no one objects I would like to post it here for an informative essay for those not so familiar with anstromomy
The unimaginable vastness of the universe
The distances in space are unimaginably vast beyond human comprehension. If I try, tell an uninformed nonprofessional that it is so many kilometers to the Sun or moon, will these people be able to comprehend these vast unbelievable distances.
The moon and sun are a mere two light seconds and eight light minutes respectively from the earth. Light travels at 300 000 kilometers a second or seven times around the earth in the same time. The moon is a mere 400 00 kilometers and the sun about 156 million kilometers from the earth respectively, next-door neighbors in fact. Even this is near distance on cosmological scale is almost impossible for anyone to truly comprehend. What about our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri only 4.2 light years away and the next nearest star to the sun. Just around the corner on the vast cosmological scale.
It helps if one understands that the fastest object ever made by man “(spacecraft voyager at 100 000 kilometers per hour)” would take 80,000 years to get there. Then if you understand how amazingly fast that object actually goes one might begin to gleaning some understanding of how far away Alpha Centauri is. Moreover, Centauri is our next-door neighbor!
Then we can move further. Let us say, Epsilon Eridani, 10 light years away. That is over twice as far - Voyager would take close to 200,000 years to get there. All evidence of human civilization would be pretty much gone in a few thousand years, given an average society lifespan of about 1000 years or less, We're talking 200 societies coming and going before Voyager makes it to Epsilon Eridani. Moreover, Epsilon Eridani is right next door.
The Andromeda galaxy, The galaxy nearest to our own milky way galaxy is mere two million light years away.. Voyager would take forty thousand billion years (40,000,000,000,000) to get there. That is over 3300 times longer than the current postulated age of the universe, and that's our nearest galactic neighbor. There are galaxies that are estimated to be12 billion light years from earth and the strange objects called quasars even future at 14 billion light years.
To reach far galaxies with a Voyager like spacecraft would take almost an eternity and it is obvious that this cannot be the ultimate method of crossing the universe. I foresee instant teleportation or some type of mind/spiritual means as the method used by advanced humanity in the very distant future to explore the universe.
Maybe they are not far at all, right next to us in a parallel universe or alternate dimension only requiring a portal to visit our reality
"The universe could be a sphere of infinite radius"
By Alan McDougall 15/9/2007
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