Man made objects outlive the earth ....

[XH558]

I';m not an astronomer by any stretch of the imagination.... but I was listening to a Radio programme the other day and a single fact that made me really think about our place in the universe...

The 2 Voyager spacecraft were launched way back in 1977 when I was 25 and had been married only a year ... they have had the most incredible ';voyage'; around the planets sending back astounding images.

But just recently Voyager 1 has been noted as the farthest man made object that has ever been sent from the Earth. On 15 June 2012, scientists at NASA reported that Voyager 1 might now be very close to entering interstellar space and becoming the first man made object ever to leave our Solar System 

They are still sending back signals and apparently the power they send is only equivalent to a 60w light bulb    onboard experiments can apparently be powered down one at a time to conserve power and it is conceivable that they will continue off into the universe indefinitely sending back information for many years to come ..... ...

A consequence of this is that they will go on and on out into space - and here's the bit I find totally stunning – they will still be travelling away from us in a billion years or so when our sun becomes a red giant and our earth becomes uninhabitable and life on earth ends..... they will still be out there travelling into space – man made objects in interstellar space long after man has gone..... crazy stuff 175000 years just to get to the nearest star - Alpha Centauri

I find that stunning as a thought .... I can';t begin to get my head around infinity .... but just to go on and on for a billion years is weird ..... 

[Biffa]

Makes you realise just how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things 

[Nano71]

What I find even more stunning is that all living matter on this planet and beyond is thousands of years old, including the cat, dog, bird or other type of animal you have. 

[XH558]

What I find even more stunning is that all living matter on this planet and beyond is thousands of years old, including the cat, dog, bird or other type of animal you have. 

Would you care to expand that a bit - I';m not sure I get you  :huh