Inside our know universe, there's a particular galaxy that is 6million light years across.
That doesn't give a sense of size... right? well!! that galaxy has 100 trillion stars.
Still don't have an idea of how big it is? alright some stars are 1000 times bigger than the sun. can you picture the size now of that galaxy now?
So... my point is...space is F*cking huge, we are not alone... there's something out there.
Six MILLION?!
Holy fuck. I've watched enough Star Trek to know our galaxy is about 100,000 ly in diameter
Anyhow, space is definitely Big with a capital B. It's absolutely insane to think sentient life hasn't/doesn't exist on almost countless other planets. There have to be plenty enough worlds in the so-called "Goldilocks" zone orbiting a G-type star similar to Sol, but what about silicon lifeforms? They could exist in less hospital (read: colder or hotter) climates, so that opens up a whole other folder for xenobiology to explore.
The only thing that saddens me is that, without FTL travel, even communicating with the closest of neighboring alien sentients would take decades between transmissions. We're not unlike a bunch of people, two to a raft, floating all over our world's oceans, with nothing but an oar to paddle about and maybe a HAM radio to talk to each other. Even
that is an overly generous metaphor.
Of course, as Stephen Hawking has noted, maybe we don't
want to run into intelligent extraterrestrials. They rarely have our best interest at heart in the movies, right?
Between the Borg, Klingons, Romulans, Greys, those assholes from ID4, the Predator species, Aliens' xenomorphs ... how often do we meet kind-hearted sorts like E.T.?
