There may well be 500 billion stars (suns) in our Milky Way galaxy. The average number of planets orbiting each star could be maybe 8 or more. There may well be 2 trillion galaxies in the universe.
There must be other intelligent life out there, indeed numerous different civilisations throughout the universe. But it could be that no matter how advanced the technology of any of them becomes, the various civilisations could be too far apart to even detect the existence of the nearest neighbouring civilisation. I find that thought a tad spooky, as though it had been planned and executed that way from 'seeding'.
Of course, they are in the skies now. Galaxies that were detectable a hundred years ago are now not detectable, they have past the horizon in which we can see. But they still exist, and are travelling away from us faster than the speed of light. The Universe is infinite. If we are able to develop interstellar travel, we can only visit our local group of galaxies because of the time it takes to go anywhere.
Local galaxies will coaleasce into a big one, and other galaxies will not be seen due to distance. Life strangely will be easier to come into being, but life will think its galaxy is the only one.
The Universe is truly awe inspiring, beyond our wildest imaginings. As is god. If the Universe is infinite, and it looks like it, so are you.
These galaxies are moving further away because the universe is expanding. Theoretically, at its edge the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light. The nearer you get to the edge of the universe the greater is its rate of expansion. Nothing else can travel faster than the speed of light and nothing else will ever be able to travel faster than the speed of light. The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second. To give an idea of an awesome distance, it would take light, travelling at the speed of light, 105,700 years to travel across the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy, which is one of at least 2 trillion galaxies.
We do not know the size of the universe because the furthest away light that has reached us, travelling at the speed of light, has been travelling for 13.8 billion years, the time of the creation of the universe. We know nothing beyond the distance implied by that.
If the universe is infinite, how can it have an edge??
[QUOTE=Neil_McDonalds_dick;39530952]These galaxies are moving further away because the universe is expanding. Theoretically, at its edge the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light. The nearer you get to the edge of the universe the greater is its rate of expansion. Nothing else can travel faster than the speed of light and nothing else will ever be able to travel faster than the speed of light. The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second. To give an idea of an awesome distance, it would take light, travelling at the speed of light, 105,700 years to travel across the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy, which is one of at least 2 trillion galaxies.
We do not know the size of the universe because the furthest away light that has reached us, travelling at the speed of light, has been travelling for 13.8 billion years, the time of the creation of the universe. We know nothing beyond the distance implied by that.[/Q
THAT is ****ing mental if it's true as we see ourselves as an intelligent species but we are probably just insects compared others out there
We do not know the universe to be infinite. We can only 'see' as far as the source of the light which has reached us in the 13.8 billion years of the existence of the universe, this light travelling at the speed of 186,282 miles per second. We know f*uck all of that which is further away than that implied distance.
In astronomy there are names for very big numbers. The average distance from the Earth to the Sun is 93 million miles, it is known as an Astronomical Unit. Astronomers sometimes refer to very large distances as an appropriate number of AUs. Pluto is 33.062788 AUs from Earth, that is 33.062788 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth.
A light year is the distance that light can travel in a year at the speed of 186,282 miles per second. The Trappist-1 star system (star and 7 orbiting planets) is 39.46 light years from Earth. That is the distance of the star Trappist-1. All its 7 planets are much nearer to it than our Sun's closest planet (Mercury) is to our Sun such that Trappist-1's furthermost orbiting planet takes 19 days to orbit it. Earth takes 365.25 days to orbit our Sun.
Our Sun is 8 light minutes from Earth.
So, if it has an edge, it must be contained within something which is big enough for the expansion. Is that container infinite?
When this Universe was created, expansion was faster than the speed of light for a small time. There are other situations in the Universe where the speed of light is exceeded, but i cant remember in what way. Im sure its somewhere on the net. Because this is the case, time travel is possible, into the past at least. Apparently.
There are places in the Universe where the laws break down, like black holes, as well as other places, we only know as much as we know, there is far more. Like the galaxies flying away from us beyond the edge, what are they flying into? There is a change from empty space to space as we know it.
Near death experiencers all report flying through space, vast amounts to something beyond. I could easily spend eternity exploring the Universe, or thousands of them. What joy that would be. As an eternal being of whatever sort.
Trappist-1's outermost of its 7 orbiting planets takes 18 days to orbit it, not 19.
http://www.pmsutter.com/appearances/2020/7/8/the-trappist-1-exoplanets-are-awesome-ask-a-spaceman
The photograph with Earth is just for a size comparison, it is not Earth in context with Trappist's planets.