I’d like to take a moment to write about one of my passions. Space. The vast expanse of dark matter, galaxies, stars, nebula, planets, comets, asteroids… and things we’ve never yet seen. When you compare the region of space around Earth … or even our solar system, to the expanse of area around the galaxies closest to our own, we’re smaller than microscopic. The mind can hardly grasp the concept of how much space there is in the Universe. (There are several meanings to the world ‘Universe.’ The meaning I am using is all things in the infinite or finite space.) Of course the current theory is that Space goes on for infinity, that there is no end. That is only a theory… a theory, I’m afraid, that will not be proven true or false in my lifetime, nor anytime soon to come.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of space. The farthest man has gone is to the moon, which is only (on average) 238,857 miles away. The nearest galaxy to ours is the Andromeda Galaxy which is 2.5 million light years away … or roughly 13,758,190,744,960,000,000 miles away (13 Quintillion).

It is believed that our galaxy contains anywhere from 200 billion to 400 billion stars. The galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy with multiple ‘arms.’ Our solar system is close to the inner border of the Orion Arm.

Our sun orbits the center of the galaxy much like the planets orbit the sun. The speed which the sun orbits is estimated to be about 485,415 MPH. It would take over 225 million years to make one orbit, this is refered to as a “galactic year.” It is believed that the sun’s motion through the galaxy is torwards the star Vega, and near the constellation of Hercules.

It is believed that the galaxy itself is moving through the universe at a theorized speed of 1,342,161 MPH. It is believed that the galaxy’s general motion is torwards the constellation Hydra.

If you’ve read this far and still awake, happy to have you with me. With all of this vastness and complexity, I have to wonder one thing. Are we alone? Our galaxy is not the largest or most dense galaxy known, and it’s estimated that we have 200 to 400 billion stars. Think of how many stars the other galaxy’s have. The known universe is estimated to have roughly 100,000,000,000 galaxies (100 Billion) which in total contain an estimated 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars (70 Sextillion).

:)

If only .0001% of those stars were to contain planets in orbit around them, isn’t there a good chance that there may be some form of life on one of them? Maybe not life as we think of it: huminoid biped that walks, talks, sleeps, eats, etc. Maybe it’s animal life, microscopic life, gigantic fire-breathing beasts (a joke ). I still wonder though: what if?

Now, the next question almost anyone asks me when I mention this idea is the goofy idea of U.F.O.s coming down and doing wierd anal probe experements on us. With that, I categorical disbelieve any of it. I do not believe there are another race of beings coming to Earth to give us a rectal exam. I do believe that somewhere, someplace, there is something. Maybe something we don’t even know how to categorize. I have a hard time believing there is so much in this unvierse, and we’re the only ones around to see it.