Vast Expanse of Space
How does it feel like being an atom in one of hundreds of thousands of molecules? Or more precisely, how does it feel sitting in a corner of a really, really large room? Of course, this question demands with itself the answer. Obviously, one who is in such a typical situation can’t help feeling insignificant. It is not a surprising fact that the importance of a small bit in a huge thing is nearly negligible. Looking over this whole perceptional dilemma, does it remind you of anything? Yes, it does. The place where we live resembles just that.
Our Earth is among many others functioning naturally inside a humongous cocoon that we call the ‘universe’. This ever-expanding ball comprising imperceptible celestial objects instils mysteries in a human’s brain, raising more questions than answers. Nature is a beautiful yet stunning thing to ponder about, and it is undoubtedly one of the biggest subjects to be studied or laid emphasis on. The planet that we inhabit is a minuscule fragment when compared with much larger entities, for example, take TON 618; a supermassive quasar with a mass of 66 billion solar masses, diameter of 389.8 billion kilometres and what not! We as humans, cannot imagine such sizes as we ourselves, feel puny.
The universe has a lot to offer. In fact, it reveals such tremendous secrets and demands from us the time and energy to study them. We may be weak and tiny, but we are blessed with something worthy that makes us stand out to every other entity in the universe; and that is, our brain. It can inarguably be said that our brains have infinite capacity and are almost as vast as the space itself when it comes to storing knowledge. Humans started looking into the vast expanse of space by first exploring our neighbourhood: the solar system.
The solar system is a flat disc when viewed horizontally. It is ruled by the sun which has under its kingdom nine planets, asteroids, comets, moons and much more. The sun itself retains 98% of the mass of the solar system. Again, we are still no match for it. The strong gravity of the sun is even experienced a little further from Pluto. We are one of the nine planets that orbit the sun. Our Earth is the densest of all the planets and of course, the most beautiful planet to sustain life, or the only planet. It has a nebulous glow which is called the ‘Earthshine’, which is a sight that is breathtakingly marvellous.
We as humans, are too lucky. Lucky in a sense that our planet has remained protected from any outside impacts and cosmic disasters. Many asteroids have known to have fled past our planet from an abnormally close range. Solar storms, or more commonly Coronal Mass Ejections, have been ejected from the Sun’s surface directly to us, but again miraculously, no serious damage occurred. If you take Earth’s history as an example, long before the advent of humans, a large meteorite hit the Youcatan Peninsula, annihilating the life that dwelled then. The impact was so intense that it completely wiped out everything, breaking a consolidated mass into the seven continents that we see today. The shockwave circled the entire earth and all that remained was a large, lonely wasteland. We can feel ourselves lucky for the time being that we are safe. One major issue concerned with the human race is that we do not look after our planet. It is the only habitable planet in the solar system, so we should keep it that way.
Coming over to the vast expanse of space, there will be a moment in future when everything will cease and the cosmic balance will lose its potential. The infamous Big Crunch or Big Freeze is thought to arrive. Powerless as we always were, it is not in our veins to control all that happens beyond our boundaries. But we can always strive to protect it from getting worse.
In conclusion, the vast emptiness of space that is a major question, the answer of which is yet to be discovered. More importantly, all the cosmic events taking place provide the clues for the existence of a being who can control all of this; this is not happening merely ‘by chance’. Keeping in mind those clues, our job is to live our life and become someone who can illuminate the skies of our planet by shining like a glowing orb.
Summary
This article explores various aspects of the hugeness of space. It describes mankind’s significance as a needle in a haystack; or even smaller than that. Parallel to it, it also highlights the human brain as an unparalleled boon we humans have been blessed with. The mystic quality of space being an empty balloon lets us ponder how and why this huge realm came into being; with this article at least providing an idea favouring it.
