decro435
Experienced Member
- Reaction score
- 22
When you speculate that the Hubble space telescope estimated there are 3000 billion galaxies in the universe and a recent German super computer estimated the number may be as high as an incomprehensibly mind boggling 5000 billion,then is it not fair to say that,in all probability,there are a lot more life-forms out there?
To think we can only see two galaxies from earth,depending what hemisphere you are standing in is bonkers.
This photo taken in Arizona just about sums it up:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/ ... ne_big.jpg
As does this one showing entire galaxies going about their business (each galaxy is said to contain between 10 and 100 billion stars):
http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/uplo ... 777866.jpg
Here some interesting quotes about life elsewhere in the universe from various historical figures:
"To consider the earth as the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field of millet,only one grain will grow"
Methodorus.
Greek philosopher of the fourth century B.C.
"Heaven and earth are large,yet in the whole of space they are but as small as a grain of rice.......How unreasonable it would be to suppose that,besides the heaven and earth which we can see,there are no other heavens and no other earths"
Teng Mu.
Chinese philosopher of thirteenth century A.D.
"The universe is infinitely wide.
Its vastness holds innumerable atoms....
So it must be unthinkable that
Our sky and our round world are precious and unique....
Out beyond our world there are,elsewhere,
Other assemblages of matter making other worlds.
Ours is not the only one in air´s embrace"
Lucretius.
Roman philosopher of the first century B.C.
"Innumerable suns exist;innumerable earths revolve about these suns in a manner similar to the way the seven planets revolve around our sun.
Living beings inhabit these worlds"
Giordano Bruno.
Italian monk of the sixteenth century (also burnt at the stake for these views by religious bigots).
"Looking at the stars always makes me dream,as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map.
Why ,I ask myself,shouldn´t the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?"
Vincent Van Gogh.
"Why may not every one of these stars or suns have as great a retinue as our sun of planets,with their moons,to wait on them?...They must have their plants and animals,nay and their rational creatures too,and those as great admirers,and as diligent observers of the heavens as ourselves...."
Christiaan Huygens.
Dutch physicist and astronomer of the seventeenth century.
"It is precisely because I believe theologically there is a being called God,and that He is infinite in intelligence,freedom, and power,that I cannot
take it upon myself to limit what He might have done.
Once He created the Big Bang.....He could have envisioned it going in billions of directions as it evolved,including billions of life-forms and billions of kinds of intelligent beings...
As a theologian,I would say that this proposed search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is also a search for knowing and understanding God through His works-especially those works that most reflect Him.Finding others than ourselves would mean knowing Him better"
Theodore M. Hesburgh ,C.S.C.,
University of Notre Dame
"I do not know what I may appear to the world,but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore,and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary,whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me"
Sir Isaac Newton.
"The earth is the cradle of mankind,but one does not live in the cradle forever"
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.
"Being an optimist,I support a persistent search for beacon signals of extraterrestrial civilisations"
Andrei D. Sakharov
"This is a present from a small distant world,a token of our sounds,our science,our images,our music,our thoughts,and our feelings.
We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.
We hope someday,having solved the problems we face,to join a community of galactic civilisations.
This record represents our hope and our determination,and our good will in a vast and awesome universe"
U.S.President Jimmy Carter.
1977 Voyager Spacecraft interstellar record.
To think we can only see two galaxies from earth,depending what hemisphere you are standing in is bonkers.
This photo taken in Arizona just about sums it up:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/ ... ne_big.jpg
As does this one showing entire galaxies going about their business (each galaxy is said to contain between 10 and 100 billion stars):
http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/uplo ... 777866.jpg
Here some interesting quotes about life elsewhere in the universe from various historical figures:
"To consider the earth as the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field of millet,only one grain will grow"
Methodorus.
Greek philosopher of the fourth century B.C.
"Heaven and earth are large,yet in the whole of space they are but as small as a grain of rice.......How unreasonable it would be to suppose that,besides the heaven and earth which we can see,there are no other heavens and no other earths"
Teng Mu.
Chinese philosopher of thirteenth century A.D.
"The universe is infinitely wide.
Its vastness holds innumerable atoms....
So it must be unthinkable that
Our sky and our round world are precious and unique....
Out beyond our world there are,elsewhere,
Other assemblages of matter making other worlds.
Ours is not the only one in air´s embrace"
Lucretius.
Roman philosopher of the first century B.C.
"Innumerable suns exist;innumerable earths revolve about these suns in a manner similar to the way the seven planets revolve around our sun.
Living beings inhabit these worlds"
Giordano Bruno.
Italian monk of the sixteenth century (also burnt at the stake for these views by religious bigots).
"Looking at the stars always makes me dream,as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map.
Why ,I ask myself,shouldn´t the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?"
Vincent Van Gogh.
"Why may not every one of these stars or suns have as great a retinue as our sun of planets,with their moons,to wait on them?...They must have their plants and animals,nay and their rational creatures too,and those as great admirers,and as diligent observers of the heavens as ourselves...."
Christiaan Huygens.
Dutch physicist and astronomer of the seventeenth century.
"It is precisely because I believe theologically there is a being called God,and that He is infinite in intelligence,freedom, and power,that I cannot
take it upon myself to limit what He might have done.
Once He created the Big Bang.....He could have envisioned it going in billions of directions as it evolved,including billions of life-forms and billions of kinds of intelligent beings...
As a theologian,I would say that this proposed search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is also a search for knowing and understanding God through His works-especially those works that most reflect Him.Finding others than ourselves would mean knowing Him better"
Theodore M. Hesburgh ,C.S.C.,
University of Notre Dame
"I do not know what I may appear to the world,but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore,and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary,whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me"
Sir Isaac Newton.
"The earth is the cradle of mankind,but one does not live in the cradle forever"
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.
"Being an optimist,I support a persistent search for beacon signals of extraterrestrial civilisations"
Andrei D. Sakharov
"This is a present from a small distant world,a token of our sounds,our science,our images,our music,our thoughts,and our feelings.
We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.
We hope someday,having solved the problems we face,to join a community of galactic civilisations.
This record represents our hope and our determination,and our good will in a vast and awesome universe"
U.S.President Jimmy Carter.
1977 Voyager Spacecraft interstellar record.
