The Universe or Cosmos, as we perceive it, is a staggering area of 93 billion light years. It is called the “Known Universe” or “Observable Universe” by astronomers because beyond it, with us on Planet Earth as the center, as the perceivers, we have not seen anything simply because it is so distant that the light from beyond has not yet reached Earth.

To understand the immense vastness of the Known Universe, just imagine our solar system as a grain of sand in the midst of a million Sahara Deserts. That is how small we are, and that is how big the Known Universe is.

In the Big Bang theory, all matter known in the entire Universe today was supposedly contained in a ball smaller than an atom. The energy, density, and gravity within this “ball” was so massive, it defied imagination, perhaps a number containing 100 or more zeroes. This tiny ball exploded within eight nano-seconds (billionth of a second), ushering in the “birth” of the Universe as we know it today.

That explosion is still in motion today, billions of stars and galaxies scattering and expanding away from ground zero. At least, that is the theory of the best expert astronomers. Many of them are still feverishly debating it today.

In theory, the Universe is made up 85 percent, more or less, of “voids” or dark areas with dark galaxies and invisible dark matter or energy, a topic for a separate article. Astronomers say that these cosmic voids are responsible for the slowing down of the Big Bang. Some voids are as large as a million galaxies. Yet, this dark matter or energy is relatively still a mystery to Man.

They say that, theoretically, this slowing down will eventually cause the Big Bang to reach zero momentum and implode back to its original ground zero, just like a ball thrown up in the air returning to Earth. Then we may have Big Bang No. 2. This cycle of explosions-implosions may repeat itself every billions of trillions of years, unless there is an intervening “cosmic event” bigger than the Big Bang.

These are mere theories subject to research and debate among astronomers. It is possible we cannot have an answer because the life span of Man may be just a few milli-seconds compared to the lifespan of the Universe of a “semi-eternity,” whatever that may mean.

The theories of the Universe have been evolving and refining and correcting themselves since the time of Galileo. This is a continuous never-ending process because our knowledge is limited but slowly expanding through time, aided by new instruments.

NASA’s Hubble Space Camera was a big leap in our understanding of the Universe. All of a sudden, we discovered so many unknown galaxies at extreme close-up and detail.

The major conclusion of many modern astronomers is — if there are trillions of galaxies in the Known Universe containing billions of trillions of stars, surely, we are not alone, and there are undiscovered planets out there nourishing other beings. We just have to discover them, or they us.

We must dispel our notion of life. We equate life with the conditions on Earth, namely, oxygen, proper temperature, and atmospheric pressure. So, to cite an example, for us there is no life in the sun because it is too hot. But supposing there are sun creatures that can live only in the high temperatures of the sun, receiving fusion energy as food.

We have to expand our knowledge by transcending our physical experience, which is limited by our spatial existence and perspective existence on Planet Earth. Once we do that, we will be open to understanding that we may not be alone in the vast complex Universe.

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