Tuesday, December 18, 2007

"We Have Only Just Begun!"


I had often wondered what happened to the "stream of energy" from black holes. If you are not familiar, then go read about black holes and come back!

They basically suck in anything within hundreds of light years.....BUT they expel energy in a stream out at a 90 degree axis from the intake....(Roughly speaking)

It now appears one of the black hole's (there are thousands/millions) exhaust streams is striking another galaxy....

OH...Just go READ ABOUT IT!!!!

Fascinating stuff, but we are just infants in understanding ANYTHING about our universe. Not in my lifetime will we have any grip on the reality of space/time....

Probably not in my kids/grandkids either....

We are truly rank amateurs in this area....

Wish I could be around for say 200 years or so and see what more we discover/explore. After all, think where we were in scientific understanding in the year 1807!!!!

In my lifetime we: made an atomic bomb; we landed on the moon; we launched a telescope which has allowed us to see galaxies 14 BILLION light years away; we cured polio; we began replacing people's damaged organs (& are now near to replacing organs with fully-contained artificial organs); we launched vehicles which now roam Mars; we launched others which are exploring our solar system; we identified "black matter" as existing; we thought and wrote of the singularity; and so much more.

How do we rank these items in their impact on us and the future? The future of Earth AND of mankind? Who knows...and only time will truly rank their impact upon us.

One thing stands tall in my reasoning about mankind's hope for A future....Mankind must deploy. We must establish other outposts. The odds of annihilation are simply too great on this small, vulnerable place called Earth. One major meteorite and all of mankind is either extinct or impaired for thousands of years. Man must have alternative locations....& the Moon is NOT enough....probably the solar system is not enough, although a major outpost on a moon of one of the gas giants is a start.

The thoughts run rampant....the needs usually downgraded to "what's for lunch"...or, what laws do we need to amend....Simplistic things of day-to-day life. Nothing to address the long-term existence of MANKIND! The Carpenters song returns to me in this vein, "We have only just begun!"

Food for thought! Now I'll go stare at one of the Hubble pictures and imagine I hear the sounds of space and time......

Duke