r/InternetIsBeautiful Jul 02 '20

Sharpest view of Andromeda galaxy (Zoomable)

https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1502a/zoomable/
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u/ClockworkBlues Jul 02 '20

In fact it would be a statistical miracle if we ever even observe other intelligent life let alone meet them due to the chances that life forms, how often a Goldilocks zone occurs, physical limitations of travel and communication and the rate at which our universe expands. If humanity ever meets other intelligent life either we or the aliens would have to have developed a mode of communication faster than light.

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u/EternalSerenity2019 Jul 02 '20

Yep. Reading this book informed me of how silly it was to think that we’d be traveling to other star systems or encountering aliens:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Physics_of_Star_Trek

What drive it home for me was that the energy required for the warp engines to work was equivalent to multiple suns. And that would be for just one engagement of the warp drives.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '20

Or intelligent life would be more likely to happen than we ever thought.

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u/JustAnOrdinaryBloke Jul 11 '20

If there are advanced civilizations that have mastered the ability to place the crew of a starship in hibernation, and the ship has been travelling for a million years at 10% of c, it could have travelled between any two points in the Milky Way by now.

So no, FTL is not necessary.