The thought of space is totally mind boggling to me. The idea that space doesn’t end and that that universe is still expanding just doesn’t make any sense. What do you mean it doesn’t end?
No walls? Nothing? Okay maybe there is a wall. But what’s on the other side of the wall?
It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. That’s okay. It’s not supposed to make any sense.
This is just one of those mysteries that will never, ever, be solved. At least not by us, humans.
I read this article about UFOs today because that stuff really intrigues me. But, I have to say when it comes down it, I don’t believe for a second, UFOs or ‘Aliens’ (which is what we’re really interested in) have ever made it to Earth.
(Very big difference between UFOs and Aliens. Unidentified Flying Objects mean nothing to me if there are no ‘Aliens’ in it.)
I do believe there is life outside our solar system considering there are about 100 billion galaxies in the universe. And movies like Contact certainly make you think.
So here’s why I don’t believe ‘Alien’s’ have ever made it to Earth:
One. If you traveled at 100 km/hr, (which is about 62 miles per hour) it would take you 60,000,000 hours to reach our most distant planet.
To break that down even further, it would take you 6849.3 years to reach Pluto going 62 miles per hour. And if I’m not mistaken Pluto is no longer even considered a planet.
Two. A jet traveling at 1000 km/hr., which is about 621 miles per hour, would have a 6,000,000 hour flight.
How many years is that? That’s 684.9 years!
Three. We know there is no life inside our solar system besides here on Earth. And the closest galaxy is 2 million light years away.
For your edification that would mean you’d have to travel at the speed of light for 2 million straight years. And if you remember in physics, you can’t travel faster than the speed of light. (Of course, physics as we – humans – know them.)
If you were traveling at the speed of light, a light year would be the distance that you would travel in one year. Specifically, light travels at 300,000 km/sec, therefore distance traveled in 1 year = (distance traveled in 1 s); (60 sec/min); (60 min/hr); (24 hr/day); (365 days/yr.) = 9.4608 x 1012 km (that’s as far as I can go but you’d be going 300,000 km/second or 186,411.357 miles per second.)
Four. Therefore, ‘Aliens’ would have to be traveling at 186,411 Miles PER second for 2 million straight years. That means they’d have to be able to cook food in this vehicle, reproduce over and over, and be fully self sufficient and self containing while going this speed for 2 million straight years without stopping.
All to just crash in a desert in Nevada?!?!?!
Until some of these folks in these hokey towns actually meet an ‘Alien’ I’m not buying it.
Sorry to say, but I’m pretty sure our fantasies (or nightmares) of ‘Independence Day’ like heroism will never have to occur.
Of course they are fun to think about and fun to write about but I’m starting to get a headache thinking about all of this and it’s time to get back to reality.
Although, reality is an illusion…
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If you liked this post you’ll probably enjoy this ‘Do you believe in God’ post I wrote almost two years ago already.
damn, space is a trip. Just trying to reflect on what the infinite means is kind of bizarre and daunting. I feel the same way about death– on a conscious level we all know that death is inevitable, but if your really try to think about your own mortality on a visceral level its kind of mysterious in the same way… most of use will be worm food in about 50 years. It kind of puts things into perspective.
The odds of the right conditions coming together to create a chance at life are daunting- maybe 1 in 10^913,243,496,123,496,343… but since time and space are infinite the idea is conceivable. There probably is another planet out there, with creatures adapted to whatever conditions are present.
There’s no proof that we’ve been visited by extraterrestrial life. However, I submit for your consideration the idea that you don’t NEED to travel very fast to travel very far, very quickly.
Ignoring string theory, there is a concept in astrophysics that I’m sure you’ve at least heard of – bending spacetime itself. Gravity deformation at high mass objects (like black holes) proves that it’s possible in nature. Now we just need to figure out how to do it at will.
Ben, yes, and that thought gives me a headache. What a thought. It’s just mind boggling.
-A