Try to fathom this about our universe...

[Ol Smoke]

The picture below is of a galaxy far...far away.  Just one blue dot in the universe of billions and billions and billions of blue dots.  This galaxy could be just like the one we live in...The Milky Way.

 

Inside this galaxy are millions upon millions of stars like our Sun.  With planets circling around them, just like our Earth.  If each star had nine planets, like our solar system had once, then by the time

you multiply all of this together, there could be this many planets in our universe:

 

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

 

that could have life like us on them.   Hard to fathom this?  Then give this a try. 

 

You are in an arena with 50,000 people watching a football game.  Now think of this very carefully,  you look around the entire arena, and you see all the people.  Think of them as galaxies. 

Now, contemplate how many hairs the human body has on it.  Think of the hairs as stars in solar systems.  Now think that each hair has nine tiny molecules circulating around it.  Now that you are thinking, try this.  That arena you are in...is one of one quad trillion arenas upon the face of the Earth, covering this entire planet.  That is your universe,  as we see it right now.

 

Recently, there was someone who asked about Star Trek and how many planets (supposedly) the United Federation of Planets had visited in our Galaxy.  In the show, they divided the galaxy into

4 quadrants, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.  In our little corner of the galaxy, according to Star Trek we had only mapped  1% of our quadrant,  Alpha.  So when you are looking at this picture, try to

slice it into 4 sections.  Then think about how many more planets are out there.  Oh, and don't forget to spatially map this picture into 3D so that you think of it as a box instead of a piece of paper.

 

One wise and discerned astrophysicist said there could be as many stars in the universe as there are grains of sand on the whole Earth. 

 

Cool heh?

 

Now think of this,  there are the same amount of atoms in your body right now.

 

 

 

[Icedragon]

One day, one day.. we will be able to visit a planet outside our solar system.

[Phobia]

how can we limit or put a number on the stars. Space is infinite. Also material seqencing is not. This also indicates that mater repeats.

[Gorilla]

“The other night I was lying in bed, looking up at the stars, and I wondered, 'Where the hell is my roof?â€

[MaKy]

Think of this! Like sand through an hour glass, so are the days of our lives.

[CruelKind]

Even as great the numbers of possibility, far great is the disparity of time. Remember we must meet our alien hypotheticals not only across vast distances inconceivably achievable, but also in the chance that humanity continues to exist in the same blip of time as any other species.

[SunLight]

how can we limit or put a number on the stars. Space is infinite. Also material seqencing is not. This also indicates that mater repeats.

what do you mean when you say that space is infinite

[Prince*Jedi]

what do you mean when you say that space is infinite

 

"It's an existential question most of us have probably pondered at some point: is space infinite? It's tricky to answer because there's not just one kind of infinity to consider. Even if the universe goes on forever, it may not be infinitely large. It could be bounded like the surface of the Earth, allowing you to travel indefinitely without ever finding an edge.

In this animation, we try to determine the size of space, and whether it could be never-ending. Although infinity is easy to imagine mathematically, in the real world it's harder to pin down. Perhaps the universe is just really big but has a finite size. And if it has an upwards limit, what about the opposite: can it contain things that are infinitely small? Is there a smallest possible length?"

If you enjoyed this video, check out our previous animations that tackle, for example, the true nature of reality, or why there's no such thing as nothing :

Watch this,  it is interesting:  http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/11/infinity-in-the-real-world-does-space-go-on-forever.html

 

PS : I found it interesting that reasoning and questioning

 

Prince*Jedi 

Edited October 27, 2013 by Prince*Jedi

[SkuLLc0LLector]

Watch this,  it is interesting. : http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/11/infinity-in-the-real-world-does-space-go-on-forever.html . 

 

Great now I'm hungry !

[Prince*Jedi]

Great now I'm hungry !

 

[Phobia]

space is a term with multiple meanings, 1 it can mean nothingness 1 it can include planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc. which means if we find an edge, even if it is the edge of a bubble or sphere (like the earth) there has to be either something or nothing on the other side. If there is nothing then space is on the other side and if we continue in a single direction and find another "edge" then the process repeats with the same results. This much I hold to be self evident. (this is not getting into the possibility that our technology hasn't advance enough to see other "universes", similar to the people of old who didn't know about other galaxies but thought the milky way is what we now think of as a universe) 

[Phobia]

btw your signature is cool Seneca was a genius

[ajnl]

space is a term with multiple meanings, 1 it can mean nothingness 1 it can include planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc. which means if we find an edge, even if it is the edge of a bubble or sphere (like the earth) there has to be either something or nothing on the other side. If there is nothing then space is on the other side and if we continue in a single direction and find another "edge" then the process repeats with the same results. This much I hold to be self evident. (this is not getting into the possibility that our technology hasn't advance enough to see other "universes", similar to the people of old who didn't know about other galaxies but thought the milky way is what we now think of as a universe)

Except that the universe is expanding at the speed of light, correct? So we could never see the "edge" of the universe.

[SunLight]

Except that the universe is expanding at the speed of light, correct? So we could never see the "edge" of the universe.

Yes, but we can still imagine things in theory, even though I'm not sure if it's correct to do so. Since our brain could conceive things which are not possible in reality and never could be.

 

Maybe there could be other universes, but how can we know if we can't even see our own fully because it's expanding

 

who knows... I'm a noob in these things, but things like the real nature of space and time have always interested me

 

And of course when talking about Science we should always consider that in the future they could discover new theories, like now we consider some theories of the past to be wrong

[ajnl]

Yes, but we can still imagine things in theory, even though I'm not sure if it's correct to do so. Since our brain could conceive things which are not possible in reality and never could be.

 

Maybe there could be other universes, but how can we know if we can't even see our own fully because it's expanding

 

who knows... I'm a noob in these things, but things like the real nature of space and time have always interested me

 

And of course when talking about Science we should always consider that in the future they could discover new theories, like now we consider some theories of the past to be wrong

Well, if there are multiple universes, then there could be a universe inside our universe. Or if it could be expanding into or push against ours. Either way, you should be able to see the effect that it is having.

 

Right that is the process. Having a theory and researching/testing until proven fact or proven false.

Edited October 27, 2013 by ajnl