Void

Proxima Centauri, belonging to a small cluster of three stars, is the nearest star to the Sun. The distance between the two can be calculated in the following manner: Light travels 300,000 kms in one second. Hence in one minute it travels 300,000 x 60 kms. In an hour, 300,000 x 60 x 60 kms, and in a day 300,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 kms. Hence, given a normal non-leap year, a light year (i.e. the distance traveled by light in one year) amounts to 300,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 kms. Now, the distance between Sun and Proxima Centauri is 4.22 light years, which is therefore – 4.22 x 300,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 kms = 39,924,576,000,000 kms i.e. around 40 trillion kilometers. This is an overwhelming number, quite difficult to perceive, given normal scales of distance in human imagination. Till now, the fastest spacecraft ever having escaped from Earth’s surface is the Pluto-bound New Horizons (launched in January 2006), with a speed of around 75,000 km/hr. And with this speed, the time it would take to reach Proxima Centauri is – 40,000,000,000,000 / 75,000 = 533,333,333 hours, which is 533,333,333 / 24 = 22,222,222 days, which is 22,222,222 / 365 = 60,882 years. Voyager-I, which was launched in September 1977, has pushed into deep space, and with its current travel speed, would take 72,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri. Unfortunately, its machinery would continue to work only till 2020, i.e. a mere 12 years from now. Technically, it is impossible for any machinery or being to last for this period of over 60,000 years, and that’s the greatest difficulty faced by interstellar travel. (A number of faster travel mechanisms have been proposed here, although none of them could be tried out yet. ) However, rather more importantly, these figures give a fair idea of what a vast void exists between our Solar System and the one closest to it. We are talking about just two stars here, and that too, within the same Milky Way galaxy. The Universe consists of around a hundred billion (100,000,000,000) galaxies and a hundred billion stars within each of them. That’s ten billion trillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars. It’s hard, really hard, to think of such a vastness. The above facts give rise to varying thoughts – The most common one: on existence of life and intelligence elsewhere. I believe in the Supreme, but what exactly is it? How does it handle such a huge cosmos? How does it look after the billions times billions living beings (if not the ones living across all the planets in this Universe), and the factors, interconnections and inter-relationships that affect their lives? What’s Astrology, which is based upon the idea that planetary and stellar positions (all of which are hundreds, thousands or millions of light years apart) play a crucial role in determining the life of a human being living in a planet called Earth? Is this Universe real? Is it really the way as seen and perceived by us? Or is it just built on uncertainty, as happens when we go to the sub-atomic levels? What are the fourth or higher dimensions? How do they ‘look’? I’ll probably study more, and ponder more upon these in the days to come.