Community Chat

[songbird]

When you think of the universe......stars, planets, etc are all so far away.  Well we now have bigger and stronger telescopes.  And we're finding more and more of them.  This is a photo of our closest neighbor (in light years of course) the Andromeda Galaxy.  And I was shocked to see just how many stars are jammed up in there! 

There are roughly 100 million stars in there. (maybe more)  Here is a closeup,  And what look like dust are actually packed up stars.   This is same Andromeda Galaxy that is very slowly going to collide with our Milky Way galaxy.  Not going to happen until billions of years from now.  Probably long after human life goes extinct.  Think of the intelligent life that might be out  there right now.....

This photo is from a group of videos on Youtube 

https://youtu.be/7FD93AsNZEc

[jellyBEAN]

Yes, I find this type of stuff fascinating.  I always had a crazy theory in my head that when one leaves this earth, their soul or a tiny cell of their being is driven up thru the universe to form part of the infinite galaxies that exist far far away.  This photo sort of reminds me of that 'dust' up there.

[dooBdoo]

               "For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”  (Carl Sagan, Contact)    Thank you for the thread and the breathtaking video, @songbird.😊

[JJsMom]

That's pretty cool.

I do find it hard to believe that earth is the only place in the universe with living things. Can you imagine a planet out there hosting a bunch of living things that look and behave totally differently from here? How awesome it would be to discover that.