Oh yes, indeed we are lucky to spend some time on this knife's edge. But it is fleeting in cosmological terms. The Sun is a yellow, G2 V main sequence dwarf. Yellow dwarfs live about 10 billion years (from zero-age main sequence to white dwarf formation), and our Sun is already about 5 billion years old. We are half way to oblivion.
The Sun is losing its mass and with every minute we inch further away. We should enjoy it while we can because eventually the chaos of the universe will extinguish us like so many before and so many yet to come. 2009/9/11 Slip Disc <[email protected]>: > > I'm sure you can move closer, or farther, depending upon your > perspective, in order to absorb more than 160 tons of solar energy, > which may render you more like the chard remnants of the forgotten rib > rack on my outdoor gas grill. I think a better perspective might be > how delicately balanced everything is in order for us to survive > within a violent environment such as the universe. > > On Sep 11, 4:13 pm, sjewins <[email protected]> wrote: >> There are an amazing series of flaws that constitute the universe, >> from its appalling celestial waste to its meagre and slipshod powers >> of sustaining life. The uselessness of satellites, their sole function >> being to whirl incessantly around their parent bodies in aimless >> revolutions, does not speak of intelligent design. Neither does the >> incalculable stellar wastage caused by undirected forces -- damaged >> moons, smashed planets, burst stars due to overly-rapid rotation -- >> point to the possibility that there is a "Celestial Engineer" in >> charge. >> >> Earth's cosmic clock is ticking as our sun radiates away its energy >> into desert space (thereby losing its weight also), squandering >> 360,000 million tons of energy every day of which only 160 tons reach >> our planet, or less than one two-thousand-millionth part of the total >> radiation. The energy not wasted is greatly misdirected, with not >> enough to sustain life in our polar regions, and too much in the >> burning deserts of Mongolia and Africa. As the sun loses its weight at >> the rate of 4 million tons a second, so it correspondingly loses its >> gravitational hold on the earth. Slowly but steadily, our planet is >> drifting away from the sun and there is no escaping the inevitability >> of earth's destiny -- to become just another of the billions of >> lifeless globes carrying nothing but the frozen remains of what were >> once living beings. >> >> But oh how beautiful the universe is! Hubble's photographs show >> incredible random abstract beauty. In a universe that contains so much >> that is the same as that from which we arose it is absurd to think >> that we are alone. I think the universe is teeming with life. >> Intelligent like us, less so, and moreso. There are civilizations that >> have been around for 100 times as long as we and have undoubtedly >> discovered the secrets that we dream of. Have grown away from the >> monsters in childhood closets that are the gods. There are also surely >> those younger than us who are still inventing their gods to explain >> what they experience around them. >> >> We have one thing in common. We are all stardust. From stars we came >> and to stars we will return. Our molecules drifting towards and beyond >> this beautiful universe that we call home. Stare at the stars and see >> your past and your future. > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
