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Art - it is the interpreter that completes the work

The distant stars are there to... see, study but not visit...?

I think the most important thing that we've learned from extraterrestrial exploration is that Earth teems with life like no other planet in our solar system. But whether you believe the universe sprang out of nothing, is infinite, or was designed out of nothing, it is difficult… nearly impossible, after looking out into the incredible vastness of the heavens, not to imagine that there is more life elsewhere in the universe. But what if there isn't advanced life outside of Earth? What if we are alone in this awesome and inspiring cosmos? And even if there is life elsewhere, how would we get to it/them if/when we discover evidence? This is a disheartening question for those of us who grew up imagining space travel to distant galaxies and have since been faced with relativity. Travel to even our nearest (and lifeless) stellar neighbor is well beyond a reasonably attainable human journey. Astronomers measure stellar distances in "light years"... how far light travels in one year (time instead of kilometers or miles). The distance light travels in one hour is 1,079,252,848.8 kilometers. So multiply 8,760 hours (a non-leap year) times 1,079,252,848.8 kilometers to find the km distance for one light year... a whopping big number. Sadly, Einstein’s general relativity theory tells us that the universal speed limit for objects with mass (such as spacecraft) is just below the speed of light. And so far, the speed record for space travel is just a meager fraction of that speed. So unless we are somehow able to actually build a much faster spaceship and unless Einstein’s theory is debunked, we are resolved to only dream about traveling even to the closest neighboring star which (currently) happens to be Proxima Centauri at about 4.2 light years distant. But these space travelling dreams so many of us have likely indicate possibility. I believe we look and outreach with hope to the heavens because that is in our nature. I also believe in the design aspect of the universe and it would be disappointing, to say the least, for the Designer not to accommodate this dream someday… how that dream is fulfilled… who can say? Perhaps we will reach the outer stars from a second Earth. Perhaps this second Earth will have new and different physics?? What is apparently impossible in this universe may be possible in another??

life’s flame burns like fusion
propagating emotion like starlit nebulae
who can hide from its beckoning
to the stars… onward outward… ever reaching
for love’s reward

Space Traveler

Acrylic on acetate with a background photograph

My rendition of Ed White's 1965 spacewalk... I like to imagine that's me in the spacesuit... free-floating... suspended in a deadly environment with art and science as my lifeline.