If only people
realized what they really are
If only humans realized how wondrous and immense is the universe they live within
If only they realized that life is eternal and universes infinite in diversity
If only you realized that the universe you think you see is only one in a quadrillion
Forever unique and incomparable, irreplaceable
Just like you.
Have a glimpse.
Take a journey back home from outer space.
Your car is fast. If you traveled non-stop for a year at your constant maximum
speed, the odometer would clock 6 trillion miles. That's 1000 times 6 million.
Tere you are, 1 year older and with worn out tires after 6,000,000,000,000 miles
of space asphalt.That's
1 light year you've just graveled. So now you have a good idea of how far 1
light year is.
Picture the image above. It is a snapshot of THE PORTION OF SPACE that is visible
to our fancy technology. It is NOT a representation of the night sky above.
It is the WHOLE galactic space backyard we pompously call "the Universe". But
of course it's not "the Universe". It's only the portion of it that we can see.
How big is it, what we can see? It is 15 BILLION times wider than what you'd
travel in a year in your light-fast car.
15 Billion times 6 trillion miles. That's all we see because light from beyond
that hasn't had time to travel to us and become visible to us yet.
Especially
when you consider that our measurement of light years may be completely off.
After all, we have no idea what kind of roadkill or trash might be lying on
those gazillions highways that might distort light or somehow speed it up with
no warning. We just don't know. That plus the fact that space and time as we
define them do not exist in the linear fashion we believe them to be. But never
mind. Let's just pretend.
The distance Earth-Sun I've added there for human reference scale purpose, that's
about 93 million miles.
home
max
journeys
the link
beyond