Now, scientists calculate that the Milky Way Galaxy, of which our solar system is an active part of, contains 100 billion solar systems. Each of these solar systems has its own sun and own planets and/or moons and/or spherical entities circling around it.

Now, scientists also calculate that space contains 100 billion galaxies that are like the Milky Way Galaxy.

So where does this leave us? Well, let's do the math.

100 billion solar systems multiplied by 100 billion galaxies amounts to a number so big that there is no name for it, according to the scientists coming up with these numbers.

Now, this is where things get really cool...

So, just what would this number that is so big that it doesn't have a name look like if we were to make it a real-life situation? Well, remember that analogy of the Sun being a grain of sand?

Well, how many grains of sand would 100 billion multiplied by 100 billion amount to?

Answer: It would be enough sand to cover the surface of the Earth, yes - the entire surface of the Earth, three-feet deep with sand.

Can you imagine that?

Take your eyes off of your computer and look off through a window into the distance. Now imagine that distance being covered with three feet of sand, just like at the beach. Now imagine that sand covering the entire Earth.

Whoa.

That's big.

Now, do you think it's still reasonable to think that we're alone in all this cosmos and blackness of space?

We won't know for sure until if/when we have our own version of 'Independence Day' and the extraterrestrials show up in our backyard.

But it's a neat concept isn't it?

So, the next time your kids ask you, like my three boys take turns periodically asking me, 'Daddy, is there other people out there in space?' - now you know how to answer them.

Or you can just answer like the line from that great Carl Sagan SETI-inspired movie 'Contact' and respond to them 'Well, if we are the only ones, it would be an awful waste of space, wouldn't it?'

May the force be with you.

Later.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

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