The Fascination With Space

I, like many others, am fascinated by the unknown. I think that what interests people about space is that we don't know what's out there. Some imagine planets just like our own filled with organisms that look and function just like us. However, as mentioned in Paradox by Jim Al-Khalili, we are just on an ordinary planet in the orbit of an insignificant star in a average region of the galaxy.  One thing I like to imagine instead is the vastness of the universe. Here on Earth we think a million miles is an incomprehensible and unmeasurable distance. But out in space, planets and stars exist that are a trillions of light years from us. Most people including me have trouble imagining a light year, which is understandable considering that the speed of light is around 30,000 km/s. The sun, which we perceive as enormous, is actually the size of a dust speck compared to some of the other stars in the universe. The star that is so bright that it can permanently blind us is one of the less bright stars that exist. What I find amazing is that scientists here on the insignificant planet Earth have developed the means to discover that this vast universe exists. I find it inspiring that we have discovered (for the most part) the laws of physics that govern all objects and motion in the entire universe. Using only what we can see, humans have developed an idea of the place we exist in and thus have influenced my perspective on everything.

The Paradoxicality