Shores of the cosmic ocean
Photo by Brett Ritchie on Unsplash
“The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land.” — T. H. Huxley, 1887
“The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” These words, spoken by the late astronomer Carl Sagan, remind us of the vastness of the universe and our place in it. The size and age of the cosmos are beyond human understanding, yet we have the courage to explore it. Earth is merely the shore of this cosmic ocean, a tiny speck in the vast expanse of the universe. From our humble position, we have learned a small fraction of what there is to know about the cosmos. In this cosmic ocean, we have barely even wet our ankles.
As we look up at the night sky, we are reminded of the infinite mysteries that lie beyond our planet. The stars twinkle like tiny gems in the darkness, and the moon casts a gentle glow over the world. Yet, even the moon is a mere satellite, orbiting a much larger planet in a vast, unending universe.
The cosmos is incomprehensibly vast, and it is difficult to describe its scale using Earth’s units of measurement. The scale of the universe is so immense that we have to resort to other methods of measurement to comprehend its vastness. One such method is measuring distances using the speed of light.
In one second, a beam of light travels almost 300,000 kilometers, which is an incredibly vast distance. In a year, light can cover a distance of 10 trillion kilometers. This distance, the distance covered by light in one year, is known as a light-year.
This unit of measurement is crucial when we consider the size of the universe. For example, the nearest star to our solar system, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.24 light-years away. This means that the light we see from this star today began its journey towards us over four years ago. It is mind-boggling to think that we are looking back in time when we look up at the stars.
When we gaze up at the cosmos, we realize that the Earth occupies a small place in the universe. However, it’s unique in its own right. It’s the emptiness of the universe that makes planets, stars, and galaxies rare, precious, and lovely. Their beauty is only magnified by their scarcity and the fact that they are not the norm. It’s our home, and it’s where we’ve learned to explore and understand the cosmos.
We have learned that there are millions of star systems, each one like an island in space, quarantined from its neighbours by light-years. There must be living creatures glimmering with knowledge on innumerable worlds, each one assuming that their planet and few suns are all that exist. Only slowly do we gain an understanding of the cosmos and its vastness.
Humanity’s comprehension of the cosmos is a relatively recent achievement. In the not-so-distant past, we held the belief that the Earth was flat and the center of the universe. However, our scientific understanding has since evolved dramatically. We have come to realize that the universe is much older than we once imagined. Thanks to advancements in technology, we can now journey beyond our planet, exploring the depths of space and other celestial bodies. As we depart from Earth, we are granted the unique perspective of observing our home as a spherical entity.
Furthermore, our explorations have led us to discover other galaxies, unveiling the fact that we inhabit a mere speck within the vastness of the cosmos, orbiting an unremarkable star in a distant corner of an obscure galaxy. In acknowledging our insignificance in the grand scheme of the universe, we also recognise our fleeting existence within the expanse of time.
Contemporary knowledge tells us that our universe has existed for approximately fifteen to twenty billion years, originating from an extraordinary event known as the Big Bang. The transition from the tumultuous chaos of the Big Bang to the orderly cosmos we are now beginning to comprehend an awe-inspiring transformation of matter and energy. Until the day we encounter more intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, we stand as the most remarkable result of this transformation — the descendants of the Big Bang, driven by an insatiable curiosity to fathom the depths of the cosmos from which we have emerged.
This article is inspired by the book Cosmos written by Carl Sagan.