The question has been asked millions of times. Are we alone in the universe?
Is there life out there?
We look up at the stars and try to see the big picture but still cannot answer the question.
If there is life out there, why has it not tried to contact us? Maybe because it is intelligent.
Maybe it has tried contacting us and the government keeps it a secret.
Maybe it is not as advanced as we would like to believe (those of us that believe other life exists) and has not mastered space travel either.
When you think about it, looking up at the stars is seeing into the past.
Some of those stars we see when we look up at the night sky was beaming light toward us hundreds, thousands and millions of years ago.
In fact the light from some of those stars was passing through here long before mankind existed.
Think of this. We live on one planet in a solar system made up of hundreds (yes that is correct) of planetary objects. Planets, moons, and dwarf planets all rotate around our sun.
With all of our space probes we have not yet made it far out of our solar system.
We live in a galaxy made up of millions of stars, some of which are certain to have their own solar system, so there is a distinct possibility they have at least one planet with the ability to sustain life just as earth does. Whether or not the life looks like us or not is another story.
Our Galaxy (the Milky Way) is just one of billions of galaxies out there in this big old universe.
According to astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in our observable universe. 100,000,000,000. That is quite a lot.
According to spaceplace.nasa.gov; So far scientist have discovered over 500 solar systems in our part of the milky way and estimate there may be as many as one hundred billion solar systems in our galaxy alone.
Like I said before so far we do not have a probe that can even determine the size and scope of the milky way, because we have not reached the end of it yet.
All we can do right now is view the nearest galaxies to us
The Andromeda galaxy pictured above is one of the closest to us and easiest to see on a clear dark night. Although you would have to have a really good scope so see it this well. (Picture came from Hubble via Wikipedia commons.)
There is an estimated 1,000,000,000,000 stars in the Andromeda galaxy making it the largest galaxy in our neck of the universe. The Milky Way has an estimated 400 billion stars.
Add to that the smaller Triangulum galaxy. Which is right below the Andromeda in the above picture and in the picture below has approximately 40 billion stars.
So what we know is basically most stars do not have a solar system. However if only one in 1 million did that would still allow for 40 thousand solar systems in the Triangulum galaxy.
Possibly 1 million solar systems in the Andromeda and possibly 400 thousand solar systems in our own Milky Way galaxy.
To think that we are the only life forms in a solar system which we are just starting to explore, in a galaxy we haven’t even cracked the shell on, in a universe that the human mind cannot fully grasp, would be the apex of foolishness.
The human mind is bound by the finite. Infinity is something we cannot fully comprehend because we are not infinite, we live, we die, knowing only what we can see or touch.
I never fully comprehended how vast our universe is until I read that most of the stars we see with the naked eye at night are in our own galaxy.
Unless we create some way of interdimensional time and space travel (A T.A.R.D.I.S maybe) we will never be able to fully view our galaxy and much less our universe.
If you can get a good set of binoculars and look up at the sky and see how many more stars there are as opposed to what you can see with the naked eye.
Get a good telescope and take a look through it.
Find a good dslr camera and set it up pointing straight up, keep adjusting the exposure settings, take several shots and see how many more stars appear in each photo.
That will be my next mission, when I have a clear night.