Wondered if we had any keen stargazers or any with interests in all things space on here. Might be an age thing but in the last couple of years it has become a real new interest of mine. A bit niche for a football forum I know but thought there might be one or two on here with an interest!
Wondered if people had been following the Mars Perseverance Rover; some incredible footage coming out regularly from that. Will we see a manned Mars mission in our lifetimes and/or a return to the Moon? What do you reckon?
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Our atoms won't disappear, they will return to the Earth.
Some will become parts of the living future.
But they will carry no imprint, no memories, no knowledge of the pattern once known as you.
In five billion years our Sun will cease to shine.
Our planet will die in the searing heat, engulfed by the dying star.
The atoms once known as you will be ejected out into space.
In billions of years they may become parts of new solar systems with their own stories to tell
The great cycle of stellar death and rebirth offers a sort of limited immortality.
Whether that's comforting is up to you.
But ultimately nothing will survive.
It will all be gone
In the far future there will come a time when time has no meaning as the Universe expands and fades.
Our descendants isolated on an island drifting in ocean of dark will watch as the galaxies evaporate away
How does that make you feel?
Yet something remains in the darkness.
An idea.
Science is the ultimate exercise of reason.
And our reason confirms deep down what we've always known.
Whether human or star, life is precious and fleeting
We are collections of atoms that can think who discovered this deep truth.
We must understand the Universe will spend an eternity in darkness after a brief period of light
Meaning is not eternal.
And yet meaning exists today because the Universe means something to us
We must understand that life is precious and fleeting.
In doing so we will come to recognize the true value of ourselves, our fellow humans and our civilization
The choice before us is not between immortality and eternal darkness.
The laws of nature have made that choice.
But we do get to choose how long we want to survive.
How long do you want the human race to survive?
There will come a time when we're forced to choose: do we destroy our planet or protect it?
Do we live together or fight amongst ourselves?
Do we expand, explore, do we carry our shared hopes and dreams outwards to Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn and onwards to the limitless stars or do we avert our gaze from the Universe beyond and allow all memory of our world to be lost too soon?
Do we close our minds and seek refuge in the ingorant dark of the cave or do we embrace curiosity and love of knowledge of our fellow humans, of our rare world and of the infinite and wonderful things yet to be known?
Long may space exploration continue and I can’t wait to learn of what we find out next. Was reading an article about a potential ‘9th planet’ in our solar system the other day 🤯
On the subject of the 9th Planet in the Oort cloud. Some believe that it is a planet that is pulling in objects into its orbit, and others believe it to be a black hole in it's very early stages, no bigger than a golf ball. Fascinating stuff.
Show me someone who truly believes that in that impossibly vast, completely unfathomably, infinitely varied universe, filled with trillions upon trillions of stars, each with their own planets and each planet with it's own ecosystem, atmosphere and resources, that we are alone and no other life exists, and I'll show you a fool
The leaps in video technology have made it so much more accessible than it was when I was a kid.
Can you recommend a good telescope for me?
I keep forgetting to order one.
I wish I lived in a fresh air countryside and had the constellations solidified in my head.
I'm a long way away from retirement so there's always time!
Dark matter and dark energy.
We still don't have an answer and probably never will.
Dark energy is basically just an opposing force of gravity, where the net force certainly doesn't equate to 0
We are definitely not alone!
The whole concept of a 'light year' still manages to blow my mind every time.
The vastness and infinate possibility mean there must be life out there surely, however the vastness and infinate possibility also mean we are unlikely to survive to ever meet another civilisation, let alone a collection of molecules at the bottom of an alien ocean.
I have (auto)biographies of all the Apollo astronauts and was lucky enough to meet Alan Bean in Houston a few years ago.
Since we won’t survive on Earth forever, (and therefore we’ll have to leave The Valley eventually!) our future is out there among the stars and every step we take in that direction is a positive one.