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The Unimaginable Vastness of the Physical Universe.

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The Unimaginable Vastness of the Physical Universe.

Postby Alan McDougall » 03 Jun 2017, 23:48

The unimaginable vastness of the universe.

Author Alan McDougall.                                            

The distances in space are unimaginably vast beyond human comprehension. If I try, tell an uninformed that it is so many kilometres to the Sun or the moon, will these people be able to comprehend these vast unbelievable distances.

The moon and the sun are a mere two light seconds and eight light minutes respectively from the earth. Light travels at 300 000 kilometres a second or seven times around the earth in the same time. The moon is a mere 400 00 kilometres and the sun about 156 million kilometres from the earth respectively, next-door neighbours in fact. Even this is near distance on a cosmological scale is almost impossible for anyone to truly comprehend.

What about our nearest neighbours 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 kilometres 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 glean some understanding of how far away Alpha Centauri is.  Moreover, Centauri is our next-door neighbour!

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 civilisation 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 nearest Galaxy Andromeda

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 neighbour.

There are galaxies that are estimated to be 12 billion light years from earth and the strange objects called quasars even further at 14 billion light years. To reach far galaxies like these unimaginable remote objects, 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 contact means as the method used by advanced humanity communicating across the vastness of the universe in the very distant future. To explore the universe by means of a metal spacecraft at present seems science fiction impossibility. But in time present perceived impossibilities might become a possibility

"The universe could be a sphere of infinite radius"

By Alan McDougall 15/9/2007

© Copyright Alan Grant McDougall 1/9/2013
Alan McDougall
 
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