When one looks up at the sky at night and sees all the glorious things that are out there, he wants to have a closer look either by telescope, unmanned probe, or going there in person. The last part is pretty impractical. The distances are so huge that they can't easily be comprehended even by those who study such things. Yes, the other planets that share our star (the sun) are accessible to man although not hospitable nor that easy to reach. The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri and it is about 4.22 light years away; that's 24.7 trillion miles away. That doesn't sound that far considering that most all others are a lot further away but just try to comprehend that distance. It is 25000 miles around the Earth at the equator, so just divide 25000 into 24.7 trillion. . . Oh wait, my calculator doesn't go that high, it doesn't have enough numbers before the decimal point. But, let us look at that distance and see if man could get there in one lifetime. It is possible, but it would take a lifetime; there would be no return trip.
Humans first left our planet back in 1961, that was the year I graduated from high school. Eight years after that a lot of guys walked around on the moon. Since 1972 the closest man has got to another planet is low earth orbit. Sounds like we are going backwards instead of forwards. But, some say, it costs too much. It did cost a lot but look at all the side affects it had and all the things that we take for granted today were a spin off of the trips into space.
The big problem is the huge distances. Even traveling at the speed of light, man could never live long enough to reach anything really interesting. Can you imagine being on a trip to our nearest star? Even at that distance you would have to wait eight and half years to get a reply to a radio transmission. Talk about a long drawn out conversation. Things get to be impractical if not impossible when you even think about traveling that far. And just think of the price of gas (grin). Now you all have a great day and don't stray too far from home, you hear?
uh,,what'd u say? Got lost there somewhere,,,lololol.
ReplyDeleteTrouble, will at least the font is OK, right?
ReplyDeleteThat font is BEAUTIFUL!!!
DeleteOur Radio signal bubble is only about 200 light years which is a teeny tiny little corner of a sleazy neighborhood in the Milky Way. 99 percent of our own galaxy hasn't even heard of us yet.
ReplyDeleteNot likely they will be impressed when they do.
Oldfool, maybe we shouldn't want them to hear us. They might think we are all like the great Gildersleeve or a shoot'm up cowboy.
ReplyDeleteIf we traveled near the speed of light, our biological ageing would slow down to nearly nothing. Of course, it'd be a one way trip into the far future.
ReplyDeleteEarth---there is no place like home!
ReplyDeleteI'm content to stay here and just look up at the stars at night. Don't want to travel there - until I've seen everything in North America that I want to see, and then there's the rest of the planet Earth!
ReplyDeleteSixbears, what happens when we slow back down, do we age extra fast? I think I will stay here, but at my age maybe I should fly to the stars at the speed of light and try not to age any more.
ReplyDeleteJill, I agree. I have no desire to leave it. I don't ever want to leave the U.S.A. I have been to Canada a few times but it is not in my future again.
Gypsy, I'm with you. I will never see every thing in the USA that I want too. Just too many fantastic places and so little time.