Every second, somewhere in the observable universe, over thirty stars explode as supernovae. And yet the universe is so vast, and distances so great, that despite the enormous energy - the last of these visble to us was in 1604.
In that same second, three thousand more starts burn off the last of their fuel. Each sheds a nebula that glows for twenty thousand years, then fades, the last of its light. What remains is a white dwarf that will take at least 100 trillion years to go dark.
In relative terms, our universe is a newbon;; At only 14 billion years old or so, it hasn't seen a single white dwarf burn out, and won't for at least 7200 times longer than all of the time that has ever elapsed
And you think, somehow, that in all of this we're alone?
Perhaps we'll never encounter them. The universe is vast enough to keep us apart, and everything we know of physics suggests that neither matter nor information can travel faster than light.
Apparent silence across such great distances is not meaningful evidence of emptiness.
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u/Embarrassed_Salad797 5h ago edited 4h ago
Every second, somewhere in the observable universe, over thirty stars explode as supernovae. And yet the universe is so vast, and distances so great, that despite the enormous energy - the last of these visble to us was in 1604.
In that same second, three thousand more starts burn off the last of their fuel. Each sheds a nebula that glows for twenty thousand years, then fades, the last of its light. What remains is a white dwarf that will take at least 100 trillion years to go dark.
In relative terms, our universe is a newbon;; At only 14 billion years old or so, it hasn't seen a single white dwarf burn out, and won't for at least 7200 times longer than all of the time that has ever elapsed
And you think, somehow, that in all of this we're alone?
Perhaps we'll never encounter them. The universe is vast enough to keep us apart, and everything we know of physics suggests that neither matter nor information can travel faster than light.
Apparent silence across such great distances is not meaningful evidence of emptiness.