Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Universe On Discovery Channel

Written on Sunday, April 25.

Stephen Hawking, the renowned physicist, is taking us on a tour of the universe this evening on The Discovery Channel. It’s my favorite place and I’d love to have a trip through it, either on my way to heaven, or if I can come back, a leisurely trip through the entire place for as long as it takes.

It’s a big place, this huge creation in which we live. There may be 300 billion galaxies, each containing an average of 300 billion stars, many of which have their own planets, some or all of which have moons. The distance between galaxies is simply vast and it takes light two million years to travel between the closest two.

How big? If a star on the outer edge of what we can see blew up, the light would not reach us for some 13 billion years. We’re not talking about zipping through the universe on some Star Trek rocket; even warp speed won’t get you very far.

The joint we live in is beyond vast. That’s why I want to take a trip through it sometime, even if it takes me a hundred or a thousand years. In the light of eternity, what’s a thousand years, more or less? It doesn’t even count; I’d be back before supper.

Not that long ago, astronomers just discovered two million more galaxies.

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