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Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:22 pm
by NoelC
Purely from observation we can see that stellar events are... All over the map! We keep discovering things that make us rethink our understanding of cosmic events.
Perhaps someone will discover a way to preserve our DNA and provide us with immortality. What a shame it will be if a planet full of people with 5 billion years of hard earned experience is burned up by a failing sun.
It would fix the problem with Social Security, though.
-Noel
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:43 pm
by emc
This APOD and neufer's comparison to the
seemingly square nebula has provoked interesting commentary regarding the demise of the Sun. It seems ridiculous to think in terms of 4.5 – 5 billion years from now relative to a normal human life span. But it does not seem ridiculous to think in terms of 4.5 – 5 billion years in terms of eternity. It is, however, difficult to think in terms of
eternity… who can fully comprehend this? Everything we witness in our physical realm has a life span. If not for a Promise, we would not even consider living forever. Plus, unless I don’t understand what I have learned from my readings, or haven’t read enough, we can only see so far into the cosmic horizon and have no means of realizing the true size of the universe. With the cosmos so vast and our intellect seemingly programmed to at least contemplate the vastness, it doesn’t make sense that we would never be able to transcend the distances in some practical fashion some day. Or maybe we’re already doing so with the imaging and sensor readings being accomplished? I hope not, speaking in terms of the collective, it would be utter disappointment to never set space into another solar system.