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One of my interests is in Astronomy. I have always been fascinated by the cosmos, how galaxies are spread out far and wide, so far and wide it goes beyond human understanding. The visible universe is so vast that normal measuring devices cannot successfully give us an idea of its true size. At the edges of visibility the galaxies are moving so fast away from our standpoint that even the light they have been producing cannot escape to reach us. It is presumed that just beyond what we can presently see there are such galaxies in existence, or were in existence once long ago. Observable galaxies at these tremendous distances have been measured at receding from us at more than half the speed of light. The distances are mind-boggling. Our moon sits at a distance from us of little as one and a half light seconds. The Sun is approximately eight and one-third light minutes away. When we measure the distances to the outer planets in our solar system we have to begin reckoning in light hours. Then there is the nearest star, Proxima Centaurus a satellite star of Alpha Centaurus which is approximately four and one-third light years away. There are thousands of millions of stars in our Galaxy, The Milky Way and we have to measure their distances in light years and parsecs. A parsec is around 3.26 light years and represents that distance at which an object would subtend a parallax angle of one arc-second. It is still a small amount of distance at 19 trillion miles or 31 trillion kilometres in the grand scheme of things. Some of the distant galaxies are umpteen trillions of miles away. In real terms they probably no longer exist as galaxies but simply of matter. When we look at anything we look at it as it was when the light emanating from it began its journey into our eyeballs. It is suggested that all the material which makes up the universe will at some time stop accelerating away from us and will then begin contracting to a single point. If you believe in the universe having been born into existence from ‘The Big Bang‘, which was a single point, then a contraction back to that single point is a definite possibility. What started the process has been debated by clerics and scientists over many generations. I believe that God produced matter from what didn’t previously exist as is claimed in Scripture. You may have your own theories on the subject. This ‘matter’, this substance that makes up the entire universe evidently can be squeezed into a pinpoint. If we look at matter itself it is composed of atoms which in turn are composed of protons, neutrons, electrons and a few other particles each according to the type of matter. However the bulk of the space that atoms and their orbiting components occupy is in fact empty space! It would appear that there is no such thing as a solid object when it is suggested that the tiniest fraction of any object is actual matter. Even the whole universe has been described as being able to fit inside a cube measuring a mere one or two inches if all that ‘free space’ were to be eliminated! So looking at it that way, we don’t exist, you don’t exist! Bears some thinking about considering how much value we place upon ourselves.
Shirley Anne
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