Will We Ever Get A True Understanding Of The Universe
Outer space is an area so big that is beyond our comprehension.
British spelling.
From our perspective outer space is a zone that seems to go on forever, we live out our lives on the surface of a planet and have no real concept of what space feels like.
We are accustomed to gravity pulling us down, in our case that gravitational force is coming from the centre of the Earth. Without gravity there would be no Earth, it is the force that keeps everything together.
The distance from the surface of the Earth to what is recognised as the beginning of space is just 100 kilometres, that imaginary boundary is known as the Karman line. Above that line, there is no appreciable air to breathe and the blue sky colour gives way to black.
Photo by ActionVance on Unsplash.
An up-to-date estimate for the number of people that have ever existed on our world is roughly 117 billion, 8 billion are still alive today. But, considering the vast amount of people that have walked the Earth very few have made the journey to space, As of 2022 just over 600 have escaped the gravitational pull of the Earth and reached space.
The vacuum of space must be a very quiet place as sound waves need air, liquid or solids to travel through. That is not to say that space is empty, there is gas and dust around but it is in minute amounts. Denser areas in outer space can host planets, stars and galaxies.
No one knows exactly how big an area space really is. Powerful telescopes can see objects that are over 13 billion light-years away. The light from those distant objects has been travelling towards us at almost 300,000 kilometres per second for over 13 billion years, yes, it is hard for us to make sense of the vast distances.
Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash.
The Universe continues to expand, speeding up as time goes by. Scientists have calculated that the Universe could be 93 billion light-years in diameter at this time. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year and is equivalent to 9.46 trillion kilometres. One trillion is 1 followed by 12 zeros.
Mass is defined as how much matter or stuff there is in an object.
Imagine a steel ball, now send the ball to the Moon or Neptune or even far out into space, its mass would stay the same. Weight is different, it can change if the conditions change.
Weight is caused by the force of gravity acting on something. An object's weight depends on how much mass it has and the strength of the gravity that is pulling on it.
The Earth's gravity is trying to pull me down to its centre, so my weight here on Earth is 80kg. If I took the next flight to the Moon, my weight there would be just over 13kg, that is because the strength of the Moon's gravity is much less than that of the Earth.
On Mars, I would weigh a little over 30kg and it was possible to be on the Sun, which I am not recommending! I would weigh an incredible 2,166kg.
The farther away we go from the Earth the weaker its gravity would be, I could say that I would weigh zero in deep space, but I would always be gravitationally attracted to something, albeit a very small attraction.
Everything on the Earth, around it and inside it has a certain amount of weight, which is governed by how much mass something has and the force of gravity that is acting on it.
End of article.
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About the Creator
A B Forbes
I hope you find some of my articles interesting.
Our highly developed brain has given us intelligence and curiosity, now with the help of sophisticated scientific instruments, we can try and make sense of the Universe and our existence.
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Author. My articles are written for people with an average understanding of the universe and life. We are not all experts. I hope you gain some knowledge if you decide to read them. Regards.