Just How Big Is The Universe?

I have quite a fair knowledge of the universe and our standing in it.  I have grasped the idea of its expanse, but I know that I cannot fully comprehend just how large that is.

It is very rare I have to go into detail about anything because usually there isn’t anyone around me that shares my interest in this subject, but on February the 21^st a little miracle happened.  Whilst we were driving back home my partner turned to me.  She wanted to know what the big bright star was that was to the bottom right of the moon.  She suggested that it was the North Star but I had told her that I was sure it was a planet.  As it got darker another star appeared to the top right of the bright star.  This was a reddish colour and it had begun to perk her interests.

Later on I looked into it for us and it turned out to be Venus and Mars.  My partner was astonished that she could not only see them but that she didn’t realise they were so close.  I began to explain to her that they were not close at all and in fact for us to travel there would take quite a while.

She then asked another question, she wanted to know how close the nearest star was to us.  I looked it up and it was roughly around 4.25 light years away.  Her obvious reaction was to try and work that out into something more fathomable based on our terms.  It equated to over 160 trillion miles – she was blown away.

I then tried to put something together for her hypothetically for her to try and understand how vast the universe is.

This is what I explained to her:

The universe does not work on our theory of time, it just exists and we try to interpret it into something understandable and useful.  Imagine if we had the technology right now to travel billions of light years from earth and then look back.  Imagine that we had a super powerful telescope so we could zoom right in on the planet. What would we see?  If we timed it right, we would be able to see the dinosaurs walking around!  We would be able to look back in time and see the planet in a much earlier state.  This is because of the distance we are away from the earth.  If we were 1 billion light years from earth and the planet were to explode, we would not see it for 1 billion years.

It really is hard to comprehend when you’re working with an expanse as vast as the universe.

The Be All And End All

We live in this crazy place where absolutely everything around us emanated from the planet.  Everything old and anything new was and will be given birth to by mother earth, and each one will eventually die and go back to her.  Over millions and millions of years, life has diversified itself spreading out and colonising previously unreachable places to the extent that certain forms can only be found in specific environments.  I’m not just talking now about the things you can see however, I'm talking mainly now about viruses and diseases.  Even life forms like these have been created in the same way and are programmed to survive and reproduce. 

There are many forms of disease and virus’s which we have no known cure for.  They can evolve or mutate just like any other species but on a much faster scale.  I believe that just how everything was created by the earth, everything can be destroyed by the earth.  We are not all created the same, each life form is as different from one another just like an alien species.  Some things are toxic to one species but are edible to another and it is this variation that leads me to believe that everything has its kryptonite and it occurs naturally in this world. 

Take this article on the deadly venom of the death stalker scorpion and the black widow for example.  It is claimed that the venom of both are being used to create various medicines and are even being looked at for treating Cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.  Now I know we are a very long way off anything being remotely usable but the science is there.

Or for something a little more lighthearted there is this article about how the toxins from the venom of the Brazilian Wondering Spider could potentially treat erectile dysfunction.  Not really as important as finding a cure to a disease but again this proves the science in the theory that every problem could be solved by using ingredients from some of mother natures own recipes.

Every life form is put together using unique mixes, to the extent that some animals can even regenerate their cells so that entire limbs can be grown back.  All we have to do is look in the right places and i believe anything is possible.  It is just a matter of finding, extracting and implementing the necessary solution.

Creation Of Life

Creation of Life

For thousands of years man has looked to the skies for answers, and even now with all of the technology that we possess as a planet, we still have more questions unanswered than answered.

Where did we come from? How did we get here?

Well if you have read my previous post about the meaning of life, then you will already have an idea that I am not a religious man.  I am in no way a disbeliever, I keep an open mind about most things, but the whole concept that God made everything, for me, has been far outweighed by science.

I once had a sit down meeting with a Jehovah’s Whiteness leader.  I was interested in what he had to say and how he would explain his beliefs in regards to the questions I would ask.  He was more than friendly, he took me back to his home to meet his family and I settled in to one of his big comfy chairs with my ears wide open and my brain ready to take notes.  If I had not of known any scientific facts, then he would have sold it all to me that day, his words were compelling and his answers were drawing me in.  He sat across from me with his eyes focused on mine, perhaps he could sense that I could understand his perspective. After he had finished I asked him one final question; "science has gone so far as to prove that the whole universe was created by the big bang.  How does this sit with your views on the creation of life?"  His answer was simple yet compelling.  He said, “I cannot believe that everything so perfectly formed could have been created from the big bang, just as you would not believe me if I said that my watch was created as a result of falling parts fitting together from the explosion of a watch factory, or that my home was built as a result of an explosion at the builders merchants.” 

I went away that day thinking about what he had said, he was right, I would not have believed his watch or house was crafted in that way, and how could the universe have formed all of this from one explosion? 

A few years later I was back on the case after watching a program on TV.  The program was referring to the expansion of the universe.  2 questions started rattling around in my head that I just could not comprehend.  What was before the big bang? And how can the universe be infinite?  Both of those questions on their own are hard enough to wrestle, but the two together started to drive me mad.  Then I had a thought after something was mentioned on another program.  They explained that eventually all of the black holes would consume all of matter in the universe and could leave just one super black hole on its own, harboring so much energy and resources that disaster would surely be imminent.  Thinking logically about it all, and listening to many theories about the universe expanding and then contracting, this black hole theory made sense.

You have to ask the question, if the universe contracted and began to apply pressure to the super black hole, then a possible outcome surely could be a massive explosion, again releasing everything that was once sucked in, out into a brand new universe to start again.

You have to admit, even if you are not a believer in this theory, the argument is there to still be at least possible.  Now rewind back to the watch and the house analogy that was used.  It still seems very difficult to believe that everything could slot together for life to exist on this rock.  Or does it?  Going back to the expansion and contraction theory, this surely means that the universe is stuck in a loop, destined to keep resetting itself over and over again. Take time out of the equation, this constant resetting of the universe could have happened billions and billions of times.  The probability of complex life forming on a planet might be extremely small but never the less it is still possible.  If you had a dice and needed to roll a six, you could do it easy.  If you had 100 and needed to roll a 6 on each one at the same time, it would still possible, but will take many attempts.  The same can be said for the universe, if you throw life building blocks out into space enough times, somewhere along the line they are going to sit together at exactly the right stages and begin to flourish.

I do not believe that a God created this world and then created us.  I believe we are the product of a random course of events that could have been interrupted at any given point, but this time it was not, and we were left to continue untouched.  Life may have even arrived crashing to earth on an asteroid or a comet, but this time everything was in place to help nurture it to grow and evolve.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post as much as I have enjoyed writing it.  It’s made me think back to many questions that I have asked myself along the way and has set my brain thinking again into the possibilities.  I would love to see your thoughts or views so please comment and let me know.