2011-04-15, 03:32 AM
Well, I just read something about Voyager I recently. The thing has been going in a straight line for 30 years with basically nothing slowing it down, and it still hasn't gotten out of the solar system (which is apparently when the Sun stops acting on the probe with cosmic wind or some such thing). It's finally getting close to the edge - only 4-10 more years to go!
Also, it is (theoretically) possible to see light from the remnants of the Big Bang. It took billions of years for that light to reach earth, emitted long before anything approaching life lived on earth, and probably before the earth and Sun existed. Light travels at several million meters per second; a light-year is 10 trillion kilometers. It STILL took billions of years to get from the far side to here. And moreover, the universe is continually expanding; the distance is even longer now than it was then.
And almost all of it is completely empty. It's not called space for nothing.
Also, it is (theoretically) possible to see light from the remnants of the Big Bang. It took billions of years for that light to reach earth, emitted long before anything approaching life lived on earth, and probably before the earth and Sun existed. Light travels at several million meters per second; a light-year is 10 trillion kilometers. It STILL took billions of years to get from the far side to here. And moreover, the universe is continually expanding; the distance is even longer now than it was then.
And almost all of it is completely empty. It's not called space for nothing.