Space: The Final Frontier

Isn't space terrifying? I mean it is fantastically amazing but also terrifying.

Perhaps I should explain. I write sci-fi so I'm naturally interested in space; stars, planets, nebula, galaxies, the whole thing. I'm a rank amateur when it comes to astronomy but I like to look up at the stars. I can identify some of the constellations; at this time of year we get a pretty good view at Orion from my house.

The problem comes the more you read about space. Everything is so huge! And the distances are so far. The first thing you have to try and get your head around is a light year. The distance it takes light to travel through a vacuum in a Julian year. That comes out at 5,878,625 million miles! That is a mind shatteringly huge number.

The nearest star to our dear Sol is Alpha Centauri about 4.4 light years away. That's a lot of miles. Betelgeuse, the bright red star at the top of the constellation Orion is 640 light years away. 640! It just gets worse after that. Bigger and bigger numbers that you can't possibly comprehend properly.

So where does the terror come from? Well it just makes you feel insignificant. The universe is so massively huge and you are just one person. It's rather overwhelming.

That doesn't stop me looking up though. I still remember the excitement I felt when I first saw the Orion Nebula. That joy overrides any terror. Now I want to see the Milky Way, sadly I've never been able to spot it from my house. A more immediate goal is spotting the Andromeda galaxy, I know roughly where it is in the night's sky. Just need a good clear night.

It's raining right now so that put a bit of dampner on it, guess I'll just have to make do with the BBC's Stargazing Live tonight.