by Anthony Megna

Created on: November 16, 2011

Get clear out of the city you live in, drive out into the desert, or if you camp out at night just look up and one can't help but be astounded at the size and scope of the universe we live in! The vastness that exists in our cosmos makes one realize just how small we are on our planet Earth. This ground-shaking reality we all witness when we look into the starry sky at night can't help but spur us all to ask those all-important philosophical questions that Man has been asking for thousands of years. Are we alone? Is there an end to the universe? Is there a God?

To try and get a handle on our place in the universe(or as some scientists say, multi-verse), it's important to pin-point our place in it. First of all, we live in the Milky Way galaxy, just one of billions of galaxies in our universe. The galaxy is a collection of billions of stars, separated by millions of light-years (the distance light travels in one year, which is 6 trillion miles). That statistic alone is enough to get a headache, but it's important to realize just how vast our universe is.

We live on the outer edge of our galaxy, and our galaxy is one hundred thousand light years wide! So to say that we are pretty insignificant is not an understatement. Another way to look at it is to realize that there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand in all the beaches of the world! Should that statement be repeated for dramatic effect? Just re-read it and think about it, and it can't help but catapult the mind into the infinite.

The above is somewhat of a road map of our size and place in this fantastic cosmos we all reside in. Just thinking about our geographical location will ignite all sorts of philosophical questions that should keep one busy for many days. Of course, a huge question is: Are we alone? To think that we are alone is the height of arrogance, when we are just a speck on the cosmological map!

The term "multi-verse" was previously stated in this article, and it needs to be explained. If the size and scope of the universe we live isn't enough of a mind-blower, than the word multi-verse will do the trick. Many scientists now believe that our universe is just one of hundreds, maybe thousands of universes! In order to avoid too many technicalities in the world of physics, a simple explanation is in order. We live in a three-dimensional world for all intents and purposes, but scientists who study these things are now stating that perhaps there are ten or more dimensions that exist! Not only that, but our universe is just one of many, and that there are duplicates of us out  there somewhere!

If all of this isn't enough to make us want to take a nap just for the sheer unreality of it all, it's normal. We just happen to live in a very exciting time, with telescopes able to see farther and farther out there, where we are now discovering alien planets and able to discern what sort of atmosphere exists on them, and other marvels to behold for all of us. There is certainly enough philosophical fodder to excite our imaginations for many, many starry nights to come.....

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