| I would like to share with all of you a journey that i | | | | universe. What comes into my minds view next is |
| have taken many times in my own mind. The reason | | | | what I consider to be an amazing scene. Little |
| that i take this journey in my head, is because I am one | | | | misshapen dots of lights that do not represent stars, |
| of those people that needs to know. It is a frustrating | | | | but galaxies. Billions of galaxies each containing billions |
| thing to need to know, but to know that in reality the | | | | of stars. Within these galaxies are stars with planets, |
| best you will ever be able to come up with is a guess. I | | | | moons, gasses, asteroids, comets, black holes, quasars, |
| always ask my self the big questions, "Where did we | | | | star clusters, binary star systems, white dwarfs, red |
| all come from"; "Where did all this come from"; "What | | | | giants, so many amazing things to see. Things we |
| is out there"?. The questions that have been asked to | | | | know off and things we have yet to discover within |
| ones self since the dawn of man. It began for me as I | | | | our own galaxy. From here I can go in a few different |
| am sure it does with most, staring up into the night sky. | | | | directions. Do I continue outward only to have my view |
| To see all of those stars only to know they represent | | | | filled with more and more galaxies? An infinite and |
| the tiniest fraction of the numbers that exist in the | | | | never ending view? Sometimes I picture this, but I |
| known universe. Known referring to what we have | | | | wonder if that is possible. Other times I turn away from |
| detected using our vast array of instrumentation | | | | the inner universe and look outward as far as my mind |
| developed over the years. The unknown universe | | | | will take me. Here I can imagine blackness, no galaxies |
| being the rest, what we have not seen. | | | | are in view anymore. What lies before my minds eye |
| That is another question I ask myself. Given what we | | | | is an empty and never ending void of empty space. I |
| have seen, "Is that not the smallest fraction of what still | | | | sometimes travel on until I can see no little dots of light |
| exists out there". I know that some astronomers would | | | | any more. I keep going until a faint glow is swallowed |
| say that we have seen all the way back to when the | | | | up by the darkness. The faint glow representing all of |
| universe was young, but how can we ever be truly | | | | the stars and all of the galaxies, and I am so far away |
| sure? How do we know we are not just seeing back | | | | now that I see nothing but a faint glow. Once that is |
| to the creation of just this tiny little section of the | | | | gone I am as far as I care to go. I struggle beyond this |
| universe? I for one do not believe in the big bang. | | | | point to imagine anything new or different. When I get |
| Contrary to what evidence does exist I would like to | | | | to this point my mind cannot grasp the possibilities. |
| point out that evidence can support more than just one | | | | What could exist out here? |
| conjecture. After all when we look back in history, we | | | | At this point I usually give up. It is not that I haven't |
| find many truths held then that seem absurd today. | | | | thought about what could be out that far. As I said |
| What then makes us think that what we think we | | | | before the field of galaxies could go on forever. Or |
| know now will not seem absurd to future generations? | | | | perhaps it ends and there is nothing but an empty void. |
| But I digress, let us get back to the journey. | | | | The one concept I struggle with, and that has been |
| I begin often times right here on our tiny blue planet. I | | | | suggested by others is that there is some sort of |
| imagine myself flying away from it a great speeds until | | | | boundary out there. How could there be? Even if there |
| Mars flies by followed by Jupiter, Saturn, and so on until | | | | was an end that I could come to in my journey, I would |
| our solar system has joined the background of points | | | | be tempted to poke my arm through the boundary. |
| of lights. I then think about the roughly 200 billion stars | | | | Would my arm just poke through to the opposite side? |
| that are now coming into view as I get far enough | | | | If I had a powerful enough telescope would eventually |
| away to see the Milky way from the outside looking in. | | | | see the back of my own head? I don't think so. Simply |
| I can't help but think that one of those stars, actually | | | | because in my own experience any container I have |
| many has to contain planets with some form of life | | | | ever dealt with in my life has been surrounded by |
| upon them. Has to be, I refuse to believe that we are it. | | | | something else. An outside. That is the one concept I |
| Once I contemplate the many possibilities of life in our | | | | have not been able to let go of. That there is always |
| own galaxy, and the limitations of our technology to | | | | going to be an outside. A something beyond the |
| reach those planets; I move farther out into the | | | | beyond. What I wouldn't give to know the answer. |