Unknown. Physicists currently theorize that there's an unfathomably wider space, in which universes are being created and winking out all the time, like bubbles. The formation of each bubble would be a "big bang" and each bubble a universe.
but something had to start something. space can't just exist! so weird....chicken...egg...chicken...egg.
there has to be lots of earths out there. has to be. with life, language, etc. no chance there is not IMO. Its probably just so far its impossible to get to.
That's a lot of bang for the buck. My work browser will not let me view stating the site contains nudity.
here's a great video <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/x1w8hKTJ2Co&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/x1w8hKTJ2Co&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
That's an amazing image. The thread title reminded me of this... <embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/hl-4958698/saturday_night_live_perspectives_season_22.swf" width="400" height="345" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true"> </embed><br><font size = 1><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/hl-4958698/saturday_night_live_perspectives_season_22/">Saturday Night Live - Perspectives Season: 22</a> - <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/">Click here for more blooper videos</a></font> Ed O.
What this image drives home to me is how incredibly small the human mind is. I mean, can anyone ever truly visualize Canis Majoris? That fucker is so huge it defies anything our brain evolved to comprehend. When I think about that, I find it a little more understandable that my mind can't really understand my eventual death or an indifferent Godless universe. How much could I really expect to contain in the tiny pin prick between my ears, relative to the sheer scale of the universe?
Technically, it's right. There are a lot of naked people in our galaxy. At least the earth part of it.
Yeah...looking at the Pillars of Creation, it's impossible to get one's head around the scales. They're these towering clouds of gas and dust (the kinds of clouds within which stars form, thus the name)....and the scale is ridiculous. Millions of stars the size of Canis Majoris could fit within the Pillars. Gorgeous, though.
You really want something that will boggle the mind? Astronomers estimate there are 70 sextillion stars in the universe, if each of those stars has just one planet orbiting it and one in every 1 billion planets has life then there would be 70 billion planets in the universe with life on it.
See, this is the kind of thing that makes me feel good. It makes me feel safe. It is also a driving force in why I think there is no God and everything is bullshit. But hey, good with the bad; right?
I feel kinda bad telling you this and we won't know for sure for another 1000 years or so but the Pillars were probably destroyed by a supernova blast. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070109_toppled_pillars.html
Shame, but then again, almost all the things we see far out in space disappeared long ago. It's the interesting and tragic thing about long distances...we see only the past, never the present.
