Monday, March 22, 2010

Give "pause" to all Importance & teach Humility

"The Place of Mankind within the known Universe"

The Universe comprises everything we perceive to exist physically, the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter and energy.  We live on a blue planet, called Earth.  It is but one of several planets orbiting an average star, our Sun.

Are there extra-solar planets (planets that orbit around other stars)? Yes. As of 19-March-2010, 443 extra-solar planets have been confirmed.

Has life been found on any celestial body other than Earth?
[ Not yet! ]

Mankind is comprised of 6.8 Billion souls who share the blue planet, compared below. We are traveling through Space with trillions upon trillions of other living things.

What is the size of our planet?
The diameter is about 7,926 miles (12,756 KM) at the Equator, see below.


Many stars retain a solar system of orbiting bodies - ranging in size, from dust, to asteroids, to planets.  Almost all the stars in the known Universe have collected or gathered into galaxies.  An average galaxy contains between 10 to the 11th and 10 to the 12th stars.  In other words, galaxies on average, are comprised of between 100 billion and 1 trillion stars.

Astronomers estimate that there are approximately 100 billion to 1 trillion galaxies in the known Universe. So if you multiply those two numbers together, you get between 10 to the 22nd and 10 to the 24th stars in this Universe.

That's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 lights in our skies. That's more stars than there are grains of sand on every beach and in every desert of Earth.  How many stars?

There are (at least) between 10 sextillion and 1 septillion stars in the known Universe.  That's a large number, yet quite small - compared to Infinity. We live on a speck of dust that orbits but one of those many stars.

Throughout our lives, we are moving (on the Equator) at about 1000 MPH (1620 KMH) due to the rotation of the Earth. The Earth is also moving around the Sun (our star) at about 67,000 MPH (108,500 KMH).  The Sun is rotating within the Milky Way (our Galaxy), at about 486,000 MPH (758,000 KMH).  The Milky Way is moving through Space towards other clusters of Galaxies, at about 667,000 MPH (1,080,500 KMH).

Due to relativity, the speed of the Milky Way varies when compared with different objects in space. The speed of the Milky Way galaxy is actually not one number, its value is relative to the speed of all other objects.

Is the known Universe expanding?
Yes.

Is it expanding at a constant rate?
No, it is accelerating!

How can that be?
No one knows.

And all of this star stuff has been moving and changing ...
For a long, long, LONG time, indeed.

Does everything have a Beginning?
Does everything have an End?
Maybe, yes.  And perhaps, no.

How large is the Universe?
No one really knows.

What is the age of the Universe?
Current scientific thought is that the Universe is 13.73 (+/- 0.21) Billion years old.

How many dimensions are there (height, width, depth, time, and...)?
The scientific community has included 11 dimensions into the attributes of String Theory.

Are we alone?
It is far more likely that we are not alone. Science believes that parallel Universes, exist.

What am I made of?
Star stuff that is as old as the Universe itself.

Why are we here?
No one knows for sure.

What is life?
Self-perpetuating, replicating organisms.

What defines true intelligence?
The ability to inquire.

How much longer will all of this endure?
No one knows.

How large is large?
It's relative.

How small is small?
It's relative.

What it Time?
Answer that question completely to become very (VERY) famous.

Is there life after death?
It is a matter of spiritual beliefs.

And so it is.
-ooOoo-

Copyright ©2010 - Robert C. Kuhmann - All Rights Reserved.