Exploration of the Cosmos

Exploration of the Cosmos

A few million years ago there were no human beings on the Earth. But who will be here a few million years hence? If we survive, out time will be famous for two reasons: because this is the epoch in which the Humans began their journey to the stars; and that at this dangerous moment of technological adolescence we managed to avoid self-destruction.

If we survive and continue to the planets and the stars, our chauvinisms will be shaken further, as we gain a cosmic perspective. We will invest our energies in an enterprise devoted not to death but to life: the expansion of our understanding of our planet and its inhabitants and the search for life elsewhere.

We will also recognize that our explorations can be carried out only on behalf of all the people of the Earth. Till now, we have made a preliminary reconnaissance of twenty or so worlds, among them all the planets visible to the naked eye, all those wandering nocturnal lights that stirred our ancestors toward understanding and ecstasy. To do much more, we must reinvest interests vested in preparations for war – in fact they can relatively easy be reinvested in the exploration of the Cosmos.

(Extract from The Rain, the famous SF novel by Elena and George).

We have always been space travelers : The Earth travels some 2,5 million kilometers every day around the Sun: eight times faster than that around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy; and, perhaps, twice faster still as the Milky Way falls towards the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Photo : © Megan Jorgensen (Elena)