Anyone who thinks we are alone,

[ron ll]

Take a look at this.
The video shows over 100 million stars and thousands of star clusters embedded in a section of the Galaxy, stretching over 40,000 light-years.

Then realize that we have discovered that life on Earth began shortly after the planet was created,
recent studies of asteroids seem to indicate the ingredients for life are pretty common,
and there was at one time flowing water on Mars, our very nearest neighbor.
And this video is a portion of the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest neighbor galaxy, only one of over 100 billion galaxies.

Still think we are special?

[oznabrag]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

We're Americans!

[GregH]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

Of course we're not alone. The numbers- galaxies, stars, other planetary systems, etc. - in favor of this are simply too staggering. And we've only begun to scratch the surface. While we've made some great discoveries in the past half dozen decades, there is still much left to learn. To put this in perspective, consider: Until the early 1920's, the most advanced scientists considered the Milky Way to be the only galaxy in the universe. It was then that Edwin Hubble determined positively that what where thought to be nebulae within our galaxy, are actually other complete galaxies residing well outside our own! He later went on to also determine that these other galaxies are moving away from us (and each other) at incredible speed- giving rise to the concept of an expanding universe.

[Jim Bow]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

Alone? Hell no. There's octopi 3 miles from my house.

[Gerarddm]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

Only the very unimaginative think we are alone.

[skuthorp]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

It's not matter of if, rather one of time/distance/when.

[LeeG]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

Take a look at this.
The video shows over 100 million stars and thousands of star clusters embedded in a section of the Galaxy, stretching over 40,000 light-years.

Then realize that we have discovered that life on Earth began shortly after the planet was created,
recent studies of asteroids seem to indicate the ingredients for life are pretty common,
and there was at one time flowing water on Mars, our very nearest neighbor.
And this video is a portion of the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest neighbor galaxy, only one of over 100 billion galaxies.

Still think we are special?

When I see scales like that I totally lose reference and start seeing a polished slab of marble. I don't think our civilization is going to last long enough to get any sure proof of other life forms outside our solar system.

[Paul Pless]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

Only the very unimaginative think we are alone.

god is omnipresent

[Norman Bernstein]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

god is omnipresent

....and He wants you to vote Republican

[skuthorp]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

I wonder if it's only self aware, and some would say anally retentive, sub-species that need a god?

[WX]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

What puts the distances in perspective for me, albeit on a smaller scale is that it took us 10 years to send a probe 4.5 light hours away.

[paulf]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

That's why what you see in that picture happened many thousands of years ago. It will take many thousands of years into the future to see whats happening now.

[ron ll]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

Except that recent experiments with quantum entanglement suggest that the speed of light may not be a limit.

[CWSmith]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

Not alone, but not visited, either.

[oznabrag]

Re: Anyone who thinks we are alone,

Except that recent experiments with quantum entanglement suggest that the speed of light may not be a limit.

Indeed.

That stuff is fascinating.

Hollywood dabbles with time travel quite a bit, these days, and I think 'Interstellar' gets it righter than most.

But what do I know?!!