Posted on 06/06/2009 4:24:00 PM PDT by JoeProBono
We are alone, very, very alone.
James Arness, of “Gunsmoke” fame, portrayed the Thing in the movie of the same name.
James Arness in THE THING
We are alone..., except for the angels... (both kinds, the evil ones and the ones that follow God).
Remember that meeting other intelligent life forms is not just a matter of crossing vast distances of space, but time as well.
Assuming that intelligent life has existed on Earth for even 100,000 years, that is still only 2.22 x 10(-5) of the age of the Earth. 8.36 x 10(-6) of the life of the universe. Maybe a dozen or so of the times when intelligent life might have evolved, it was wiped out by a chance occurrence, and had to almost start over.
There have been times when entire sectors of the Milky Way galaxy have been sterilized by cosmic events, that would have wiped out every life form including microorganisms, if any existed.
How long might intelligent life on Earth continue? Another 100,000 years?
Then figure that space and time are both working against us meeting any other intelligent life. Even if they can travel faster than light, they have to travel a LOT faster than light to cover such distances.
The nearest star to Sol is 4 light years away. At twice the speed of light, only 2 years away. At four times the speed of light, only a year. At eight times, a six months. At 16 times, three months. At 32 times the speed of light, six weeks. 64 times the speed of light, three weeks. 128 times the speed of light, a week and a half. 256 times, say six days. 512 times, three days.
1024 times the speed of light to get there in a day and a half. Just four light years away.
The two closest potentially habitable star systems to ours are 26 and 42 light years away, respectively.
Add to that the possibility of their having intelligent live, or the course of 12 billion or so years. Their “200,000 years”, if you like.
Now that’s my kind of angel... LOL...
The truth is out there.
John Carpenter’s “The Thing” is on my personal list of ten best SF movies of all time.
What movie is that, with all those people bending over that table of... what are those things?
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