Space.
It’s amazing, but you already knew that.
From teeny-tiny specs of dust to stars so big they make our sun feel insignificant to beautifully colored galaxies, space is filled with mysteries we may never resolve. Although celestial bodies are unreachable, being millions of kilometers away from us, that doesn’t mean we can’t observe them from a distance.
For example, humanity, since ancient times, has been fascinated by the night sky and its secrets, giving the brightest of lights names; connecting them like dots on a piece of paper, creating shapes that resemble animals and even mythological beings; even discovering and witnessing amazing things without their knowledge, like a supernova visible for multiple days in medieval times that made people think it was either a second sun or even, God.
Enough boring stuff. Here are some cool facts about the universe:
1. At the center of every galaxy there’s a supermassive black hole (don’t panic, we aren’t getting absorbed into it any time soon);
2. The most powerful things in the universe are called quasars- supermassive black holes feeding on copious quantities of gas (don’t worry about these either, the closest quasar to earth is 2.3 billion light-years away or, to be more precise, 2.3 billion light-years away from YOU, the reader)
3. HD 189733b – no, it’s not high definition, it’s a planet where it rains molten glass horizontally. You may ask: “How can it rain horizontally?”… Aren’t you concerned that it rains molten glass? Anyways, the wind on the planet catches speeds up to 8,700 Km/h. In miles that means VERY fast!
4. An Earth analog, Earth twin or second Earth is a planet or a moon with similar environmental conditions as those found on Earth. Some think such a planet can replace Earth, others know that the closest one to us – Gliese 667Cc – is 22 light-years away and uninhabitable
5. The chances of there being extraterrestrial life are low, but not 0. This doesn’t mean we will ever meet aliens or that aliens haven’t already reached us. For all we know, smart enough aliens have seen us and thought “How can they fight each other with weapons that can eradicate half the planet they live on?” and decided not to intervene. Or, a plant-like alien race saw vegans eat plants and thought “Heck nah, we don’t want to be eaten”
Instead of making our heads hurt by thinking about the infinity of space we should try exploring our planet instead. Scientists find new species every day and we are worried about aliens? There are still mysteries on Earth. Why don’t we try to solve them before trying to find things we can’t even reach?