Recently on the non-Trump news, scientists reported the discovery of amino acids in yet another comet.
These same amino acids were found in a comet in 2006, and again in 2016. What does the discovery of all these acids mean?
It means that the building blocks of life are common in space, and that life may be abundant throughout the universe.
I am of the firm belief that life is very, very abundant in the universe.
Many people of faith believe life exists only here on Earth. If they’re referring to human life, they’re probably right. But I bet there are 100 million varieties of intelligent life in the cosmos that could teach us a thing or two.
Unfortunately, we’ll never get to know them, or they us.
Too many sci-fi movies, books & tv shows have compartmentalized outer space, inadvertently brainwashing us into believing we’ve been visited by aliens since the ancient Egyptians—and it’s only a matter of time before we’re landing on new planets ourselves. It’s never going to happen, folks.
YOU: We don’t need to travel that far, Doug. The star closest to us is Proxima Centauri, and that’s only 4.25 light years away!
ME: Without the ability to travel at the speed of light, it would take us 70,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri.
I don’t want to be a wet rag, but nothing besides light can travel at the speed of light. “Warp speed” like on Star Trek, that’s fiction.
However, our telescope technology is amazing. Who knows what we’ll be seeing in 10 years? 25?
Look at these 2 images of deep space using the Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990s, and a more recent image using the James Webb Telescope.
Those aren’t stars or planets—these globs of light are GALAXIES. The updated photo on the right shows us galaxies we didn’t detect before.
And each of these galaxies contain billions of stars, and those billions of stars usually have solar systems (planets & moons) in their orbits.
Psst--the galaxy closest to our own, Andromeda—even if we COULD travel at the speed of light, it would still take 2 1/2 million years to get there. Just saying, we’re never leaving our own galaxy.
Scientists estimate there are 2 trillion galaxies in the universe. And I have no doubt that on countless worlds, beings are doing their own stargazing and wondering who or what is out there. I just hope most of them have better leaders than we do. Or less gullible followers.
Finally, this is something I’ve had stuck in my head for 50 years, and as long as we’re in outer space…
When I was around 12-13 years old, my parents were headed out one evening and Mom asked me to run in her bedroom and get her good cigarette lighter from the top drawer of her dresser. I go in there, pull out the drawer, and notice a yellowed newspaper clipping underneath her small wedding Bible in the right corner.
It was an old advertisement for “The Queen of Outer Space” at our local drive-in. I took the clipping into the other room (where Mom was applying her make-up) and asked why she had this in her dresser.
She said “Oh, your dad took me to see that after we were married.”
I said “But what was so special about this one? You told us about the great movies you saw when you two were dating like A Place in the Sun, On the Waterfront…. but The Queen of Outer Space? You don’t even LIKE science fiction. Or Zsa Zsa Gabor.”
She said “Honey I don’t know what to tell you—now put it back where you found it and get my damn lighter!”
I learned it had a sneak preview at the Waynesburg Drive-in on August 16, 1958. Exactly 9 months to the day after that showing, my older brother Duke was born. I think the mystery of the Queen of Outer Space clipping is solved.
Oh my gosh. That is a hysterical story about your brother. You might be thinking out loud. Me? I am laughing out loud!
ReplyDeleteHaha, thank you Debby! Well, I always wanted a reason to share that ;^)
DeleteHa! What happens at the Waynesburg Drive-in stays at the Waynesburg Drive-in! I'm with you, Doug! The universe must be teeming with life!!! I love to gaze at the night sky on a cold, clear night. Wondrous places and creatures must be out there!
ReplyDeleteFlorence will you marry me? :^)
DeleteThat's a great story about your brother, wink, wink. Part of me wishes that we could meet other life forms and the other part (especially now) thinks it's appropriate that we're too far away to mess up any other planets. Cynical, I know!
ReplyDeleteThank you Margaret and no I don't think that's cynical at all--my God, look at who we're letting lead us. Maybe in another thousand years, we'll be ready to get out there for real.
DeleteDug, I love reading almost anything that is about science or research, so I enjoyed this post. And I too think there's more life out there. To think we're the only inhabited planet seems a bit ... what's the word? arrogant maybe? But what about time travel? How does that fit into your thinking? (Also love those telescope images!)
ReplyDeleteRian, I have a feeling we could have a great time hanging out and just talking. I so agree, thinking we're the only life out there is just arrogant. As for time travel (I love that topic) I've read some studies theorizing it could be one day possible to do leaps forward--but going backward would be impossible.
DeleteLOL! There are some things a parent does not share with their child/ren.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time wrapping my head around the size of our universe so I'm a bit like Scarlett O'Hara, I'll think about it tomorrow (or more likely not very often). Though I do think it would be ridiculous to think that we are the only beings capable of thought out there.
Haha--thank you Maebeme! Well, that old newspaper clipping and my older brother's birth could be purely coincidental. But WHY else would she have saved that? And yes I have a hard time too wrapping my head around the cosmos, but sometimes I'll see something on the news and get to thinking... :^)
DeleteWell, you’ve strayed into my territory this time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there’s probably life elsewhere, but I content that it’s no more advanced than sludge. After all that’s all there was on Earth for three and a half billion years. It took that long to produce anything more advanced, and hundreds of million more years before we produced anything with even a modicum of intelligence.
In spite of what “Jurassic Park” tells us, dinosaurs were really dumb creatures.
The first stars were just hydrogen and helium. It took hundreds, maybe thousands, of generations of supernovae to produce the elements that are around today. Not to mention much rarer collisions of neutron stars to produce the heaviest elements that supernovae don’t produce.
There are all these galaxies, all with billions of stars and planets, but the further away they are, the further back in time they are. They won’t have the elements necessary for life.
Our solar system is extraordinarily unusual. None of the star systems discovered in the last 10 years are like ours. Also, in spite of what people always say, the sun is unusual – a G type star and only about 5% of stars are that type. Bigger stars don’t last long enough to produce life (they are the ones that go supernova). Smaller ones (Red Dwarfs, the vast majority) require the “goldilocks zone”, where life could evolve, to be too close to the star. These are very active stars and would strip any atmosphere, water, whatever from the planets.
There’s a lot more and I could go on, but I’ve gone on for far too long already.
There was no film poster in our drawers, however, it’s obvious that dad was home for Christmas (a break from his driving tanks) as I popped up in the middle of September 1945.
Thanks Peter, I enjoyed your take here (and your origin story :^) Well, I am not disputing the fact there's countless worlds out there with little more than sludge, and I do think intelligent life is pretty unique, but again we're not taking the size of the universe into account here. I just think with two billion trillion stars in the universe, even a minute percentage of brainy beings would still be in the millions. I declare myself the victor here. :^)
DeleteThe photos of galaxies are amazing!! I am not a "space" person but I get updates on events in the sky from many family members. It is my understanding there is a spot these family members gather just south of town on a treeless hill, telescopes at hand, to witness these things. I prefer to look at their photos on Facebook the next morning.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the clipping - adorable story!!!
Thanks Miss Merry, and wow that is so awesome you have family that go stargazing like that! You've inspired me, I need to look into getting a scope of my own. :^)
DeleteBut Doug, we are made of the stars. The universe expressed as humans for a bit. We get back there, eventually.
ReplyDeleteJoanne, that was so nicely said as is everything you share. Thank you and I agree, and I hope we see a new post from you soon. :^)
DeleteWow, so that movie spawned new life. Amazing. I don't know when my kids were conceived. They both came before the due date.
ReplyDeleteHaha--thanks Gigi. Well, I couldn't say for sure this is what happened. My brother could've been spawned before that movie, or after. I just found the exact 9 months date-span a fun coincidence. :^)
DeleteI think you're right, there are probably so many life forms in the vastness of the Universe and various Galaxies. There's so much about our own Planet we don't even really know about that it's arrogant of us to imagine we know everything about what's outside of our Planet.
ReplyDeleteSo true, thanks Bohemian. Earlier today I was watching a UK nature video of an octopus looking for food and shelter on the ocean floor, and I thought it was just amazing. We barely know 5% of our own Earth's oceans.
DeleteI firmly believe that life exists out there somewhere! One word of advice though…avoid the planet Talos IV.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Thanks Commander, will do. Jase, guess what I'm watching at this very moment. Amok Time on Paramount Plus and loving it more than ever. ❤️🖖🙂
DeleteLife as we know it, could quite possibly exist elsewhere. What I wonder about is life/ "intelligence" as we don't know it. (A touch of quantum physics here.) That's the bigger question - what we don't even know that we don't know.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Anon, you really made me think here--but yes, good question. It boggles the mind.
DeleteI have never done the back seat at the drive in thing, but it does seem possible that your parents did. Why else would she keep that clipping? Very funny story. Gigi from Toronto
ReplyDeleteHaha thanks Gigi--well, it makes me cringe a little to think about it, but this date at the drive-in was only 1 week after they married, and they were pretty young (Mom 18 and Dad 21) so... ;^)
DeleteThat’s a great story..how is your brother? I have an older brother..4 1/2 years older and younger sister..2 years…so you must have been the babysitter if you are 13 years older.
ReplyDeleteBeth
Thanks Beth--well, the brother I talked about above is the oldest, he's 66. I'm next, 63. Then there's 4 more, my sister Shawn is 2 years younger than me, and then another brother and 2 sisters, the youngest turns 50 this summer. So I think at one point we were all babysitters except the youngest. :^)
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