New Frontiers 

It’s an astounding thought just to consider the enormity of Earth itself.  In terms of mass, the planet weighs as much as 33 quadrillion aircraft carriers.  But that is nothing when one considers that if the Sun were hollowed out and many Earth’s were plopped into a hole on top, more than one million of them would fit inside!  (By the way, did Horton hear a who, or didn’t he?) 

The Sun itself is dwarfed by the distances of its solar system.  If the Sun, with a diameter of nearly one million miles, were replicated and lined up like  a string of giant marbles and stretched to Pluto, it would take 4,216 of them to reach the distance to the Solar System’s outermost planet. 

While light can traverse the distance between the Sun and Pluto in less then five-and-a-half hours, it would take a person walking at a clip of 5 miles an hour 83,265 years to arrive at the destination.  Even a commercial jetliner travelling at 600 miles an hour would take 693 years to again reengage its landing gear! 

Having flung Pioneer and Viking craft in outer space at much greater speeds than a jet, humanity has only in recent years sent an object beyond the frontier of our own solar system.  Even at the greatest speeds ever attained, could a person even begin to hope of reaching a destination just a light-year away—that is, a distance of six trillion miles?  And what about distances to “nearby” stars of thousands or even millions of light-years away? 

While the accomplishments of science and technology are indeed worthy of celebration, a bit of perspective is in order.  The physical obstacles to reaching beyond our own solar system alive are nearly beyond comprehension—that is, given the limitations of our own life span and frailty of existence.  Yet, where did these great distances come from in the first place?  Are they simply happenstance cosmic specks of matter racing away from each other at mind-boggling interstellar distances and speeds?  Or are they significant bits originating in a Being even greater than the Universe itself and therefore endowed with meaning and hope? 

If the latter is the case, it seems that the new frontiers we dream of can only be attained by and through connecting with that Being who created the enormous distances we attempt to comprehend.  And perhaps the frontiers of space are only the beginning of where the Creator might wish to take us—beyond distances of width, height, and depth— to new dimensions and purposes yet to be conceived. 

But dare we even hope to find that Being if it chooses not to be found?  Or might that Being, perchance, choose to find us?

This reflection copyright © 2002, ImagesofSpace.com.

Contact:  inquiry@imagesofspace.com.