I don’t think it’s possible for our minds to really visualize just how big the universe is, or even how big our own galaxy and our nearest neighboring spiral galaxy (2.5 million light-years away) are.

But here’s a visual aid.

As we zoom in on this, the largest picture ever taken, remember that each of those tiny, tiny, tiny specks of light is a star, and at this distance we’re only seeing the brighter ones. When we get to the center of the galaxy it literally looks like milk, you can’t distinguish one star from another. (The isolated brightest lights in the picture are not in Andromeda, they are close stars in our own galaxy, right next door.)

And yet there are still people around who say there’s probably no other intelligent life (if you concede that we are intelligent, something that hasn’t been proven to my satisfaction yet) in the universe. Just last week the newest theory was floated, something about Large Gamma Ray Bursts. Bullshit. Bullshit. There’s plenty of life out there. Whether or not we will ever contact it is another question entirely.

March 21, 2015
Vancouver, WA