Keep Life in perspective...

[andrea]

I dont think we are alone, space is infinite and just keeps expanding all the time.

No way is there just us, amongst that great vastness.

[mertol22]

I dont think we are alone, space is infinite and just keeps expanding all the time.

No way is there just us, amongst that great vastness.

I agree 100% on that Andrea , imagine a little fella on a planet orbiting a star in the Andromeda galaxy right now munching on a bic mac because he picked up a mc donalds transmission in his home.

[mertol22]

contact  jody foster good film

[andrea]

E.T was more my thing

I even cried at the end, but i was only a kid at the time.

[mertol22]

E.T was more my thing

I even cried at the end, but i was only a kid at the time.

  i can see you now cheering when et lifts his finger in the basket on elliotts bike and lifts over the cop cars along with his mates on bikes !

[andrea]

Ha Ha, it was a good film, but then it didnt have the same effect when i found out that E.T was made from a vaccum hose

[mertol22]

It was a good film but looking back the effects were rubbish,there is no way a little alien is going to be left shut out of a survey ship is there !, im about to enter kippo land going to bedford early in morn, but on a serious note Andrea if outer space does intrest you,,, you may know of a sadly passed away tv presenter,scientist carl sagan, he wrote the novel contact whichthe film is based on, he presented his superb series in 1980 called cosmos, music by vangelis, the episodes are on youtube,in 1 episode carl said there are more stars in the universe than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on earth.

[bob]

I'd like to know bob's opinion on this.

Sorry - only just spotted this thread...

No - I don't think we are alone.

But... beyond our solar system, the distances to other likely inhabited planets are too large for us to ever have any chance of breaching, so whilst I am very confident that Earth isn't the only place in the universe to harbour intelligent life, I'm equally confident that we'll never encounter any other intelligent life forms - well, not in our lifetimes.

That's not to say we won't find some less advanced life forms in the local neighbourhood - there could well be microbial life buried on Mars, and there could certainly be all manner of life under the frozen surface of the waters of Europa - if you think of the organisms that live near the undersea volcanic vents on Earth, those kind of things could have evolved on Europa.

[grahameb]

Are we alone?

That's a strange expression. Are WE alone. Well there are several billion of us on the planet.

[grahameb]

I dont think we are alone, space is infinite and just keeps expanding all the time.

No way is there just us, amongst that great vastness.

How can space be infinite and expanding at the same time?
If we say things like space is infinite then how can we be so dog sure that God doesn't exist? Just because we can't think that big we dismiss it altogether. But we have something tangible that forces us to think in such terms. The plain facts are we can't entertain thoughts of how big the universe is. We just cannot comprehend it. Our finite minds simply do not have the capacity to think that big. Rochy showed us pictures of the farthest reaches of the universe and still we cannot see the end. Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions?

[Newbury1]

The truth is out there.....

Yeah, it's  in a woods near Marlow!!

[bob]

How can space be infinite and expanding at the same time?
If we say things like space is infinite then how can we be so dog sure that God doesn't exist? Just because we can't think that big we dismiss it altogether. But we have something tangible that forces us to think in such terms. The plain facts are we can't entertain thoughts of how big the universe is. We just cannot comprehend it. Our finite minds simply do not have the capacity to think that big. Rochy showed us pictures of the farthest reaches of the universe and still we cannot see the end. Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions?

Space is infinite and expanding - but the expansion is into a dimension which you can't see.

Imagine you were a 2-dimensional being living on the surface of a balloon. As you're 2-dimensional you only have the concept of forward/backward and left/right (no up/down). So you can travel around the surface of your balloon forever - your space seems infinite as you could never reach an "edge" (although if it were a fixed sized balloon you would eventually end up back where you started).

Now imagine somebody is blowing up the balloon you live on - now your space would also be expanding. If there was a spot on the balloon an inch ahead of you, you would see it is getting further away as the balloon expands - but you don't have the concept of up/down, so all you see is the spot receding in the dimensions that you do understand - the reality is that rather than the spot moving away, more space is being added in between you and it.

That's kind of how it works.

[ngb1066]

Space is infinite and expanding - but the expansion is into a dimension which you can't see.

Imagine you were a 2-dimensional being living on the surface of a balloon. As you're 2-dimensional you only have the concept of forward/backward and left/right (no up/down). So you can travel around the surface of your balloon forever - your space seems infinite as you could never reach an "edge" (although if it were a fixed sized balloon you would eventually end up back where you started).

Now imagine somebody is blowing up the balloon you live on - now your space would also be expanding. If there was a spot on the balloon an inch ahead of you, you would see it is getting further away as the balloon expands - but you don't have the concept of up/down, so all you see is the spot receding in the dimensions that you do understand - the reality is that rather than the spot moving away, more space is being added in between you and it.

That's kind of how it works.

Very nicely explained Bob.  I find this really fascinating.  My big career choice was made when I was 15, it was either law or astronomy and I chose law. I have always maintained my interest in astronomy however and sometimes regret the career choice.

   

[grahameb]

Space is infinite and expanding - but the expansion is into a dimension which you can't see.

Imagine you were a 2-dimensional being living on the surface of a balloon. As you're 2-dimensional you only have the concept of forward/backward and left/right (no up/down). So you can travel around the surface of your balloon forever - your space seems infinite as you could never reach an "edge" (although if it were a fixed sized balloon you would eventually end up back where you started).

Now imagine somebody is blowing up the balloon you live on - now your space would also be expanding. If there was a spot on the balloon an inch ahead of you, you would see it is getting further away as the balloon expands - but you don't have the concept of up/down, so all you see is the spot receding in the dimensions that you do understand - the reality is that rather than the spot moving away, more space is being added in between you and it.

That's kind of how it works.

Like I said. It's beyond our reasoning powers. We cannot imagine infinity. The word infinity in itself  means what it says. It leaves no room for expansion. In other word the expression "expanding" is superfluous. You don't need it for infinite includes all that information any way. So you can't use the two words in the same sentence.

[grahameb]

Very nicely explained Bob.  I find this really fascinating.  My big career choice was made when I was 15, it was either law or astronomy and I chose law. I have always maintained my interest in astronomy however and sometimes regret the career choice.

 

There's no money in astronomy. Unless you're a fat old guy with a monocle.