The Universe [part one]

If you have just tuned in, welcome to my occasional, yet irregular, exploration of the Universe.

If you have found this site looking for specific information regarding the origins of the universe, you may have possibly taken the wrong turn somewhere, although everything begins with a question.

Today, I shall be writing about my thoughts on the whole universe. I have not had any specific training in this field, and don’t really know anything about the sciences involved. I don’t own a telescope, and my digital camera does not take really good photos of the stars at night. My digital camera is actually part of my mobile phone, but it has 5 megapixels. When I first got the phone, I was expecting to be able to take a good photo of Saturn with 5 megapixels, but apparently I was misled. I can’t even get a good shot of the Moon, but that may be due to my photography skills. I haven’t had any specific training in photography either, although I can take really good portrait photos. And photos of plants, landscapes and animal’s tails as they run away.

So. The universe. You may have noticed that sometimes I type the universe, and at others I type the Universe. When I write the universe, I am referring to the expanse out there – the planets, the stars, the meteors, the gases, the suns, the dark matter and all of the bits in between. When I type the Universe I am referring to every single thing that is in the universe. Everything. Even my photos of the Moon. And my thoughts. And me.

Today, I’m looking at the universe. Well, one part of it. The start of it.

And already I’m confused. Apparently, according to some sources, the universe started with a Big Bang. I can not confirm this, as I wasn’t actually present in those days, but it must have been a very big bang to force everything out of nothing. Some thirteen point something billion years ago the explosion forced out the universe we are part of today, and it is still expanding outwards. This bit I understand. I see it like blowing up a balloon until it bursts and then particles of the balloon fly outwards. Only in the universe’s case there isn’t anything to stop it expanding further and further outwards, compared to the walls if the balloon was being inflated indoors. Outside, the balloon may be able to expand further, but it will eventually stop. No, I get that bit. What I don’t get is where did the explosion that was the Big Bang come from?

If there was nothing to start off with, there was nothing to explode. So there must have been something there before the Big Bang to start it all off. The final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation sums this up nicely. And the question of the universe is what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Everything is evolving and constantly changing, so that dictates that back in the year minus-13-point-something-billion things would have been different to how they are today. Well, you couldn’t possibly imagine things staying the same for all that time can you? Fashion would be a bit boring now if that’s the case. My fashion sense is about 13 billion years out of date anyway, but it is updated occasionally. And as for hairstyles… anyway, I digress.

So, the more things change, the more things stay the same. The sooner something goes out of fashion, the sooner it is back in with a slightly different twist. The minute I buy a top of the range electrical item is the minute its next generation replacement is launched. The more people get ahead, the more I am playing catch up. And the more thoughts I have, the more ideas I have too.

I’ll never know the truth of the universe. I can read about it, watch documentaries about it, watch sci-fi movies or make my own ideas up about it, but I will never know if this information is right or wrong.

And if the truth is known, I don’t think I want to know.

I like a little mystery. A little magic. I love looking up into the sky and catching the (very occasional) meteor shooting high above. I love missing it with my mobile phone. I love seeing images that the proper scientists have managed to obtain from their good telescopes. I love to imagine that with all of the numberless stars that are out in the vast expanse of space some of them will have planets revolving around them. I love to imagine there being life on these planets. I love to imagine this life having meaningful existences, and conversations about 5 megapixel cameras, out-dated fashion and bad hair.

I love to imagine that this Earth that we live on is not the only planet in the entire universe that supports life. If that is the case, and we are alone then we are very special.

I don’t own a telescope, but I have a pretty good imagination. I imagine good things.  And I think.

My thoughts make the universe much bigger than it probably is, but can you get bigger than infinity? Infinite time and distance, possibilities and probabilities, and therefore infinite dreams and goals.

I said at the beginning of this post that everything begins with a question. The question is usually asked at the end of something else, for example ‘What can I do different?’, and then something new starts.

So, if everything begins with a question, and questions mark the end of something else, that means that everything is just moving forwards, evolving. There is no beginning or end. There is just everything. That’s my universe.

The Universe.