The fact that the light from the other stars do not illuminate us on earth is actually additional proof as to just how far away they are and just how massive the universe is. Also it's additional proof of how much distance there is between the various stars and galaxies as well. It's at a scale that is not intuitive to our human senses.

I used to have a recurring bad dream when I was younger Zaid where I would see myself get smaller and smaller in the vastness of the universe. Like I was looking down on myself and moving away faster than the speed of light. It's incredible how vast space is and how small we are.

wow what a nightmare Martin! I remember the first time the scale of the universe truly dawned on me... it was after the Cosmos series.... for days after I was literally shaking when I would think about how small I am compared to the universe... it's a frightening concept really. We are smaller than the atoms are relative to us at a cosmic scale.... Are we just more self-aware clumps of molecules going about our business much in the way that sub atomic particles are amongst our own cells?

Ps - My first name is Fozia- LM1 auto generated that ID for me, and my profile has my first name on it but for some reason doesn't display when I post.

Hi Fozia, you're absolutely right! When the scale of things begins to dawn on me, my mind needs time to settle. Carl Sagan was a master at bringing home the nature of immensity.

I've just updated the Hints for New Forum Members by expanding the section on usernames:

Log into the Luna Mission One web site by scrolling to the top of any page. You'll see a "Log in" button or your username at the top. Click the down arrow, then "My Profile" to change your username. If you are new to the site you will need to "Register" which is free. Note that there are two fields: your "Name" which remains private and is used behind the scenes, and your "username" which is your online identity at Lunar Mission One (the name that will be displayed in your public profile on the left of posts).

If that doesn't fix the problem, then head over to Website Feedback and Reporting Problems and report the issue there so the site designers can resolve the problem.

Hi Fozia,

I am always wary of using a persons real name on a forum without invitation just in case that person doesn't want their name to be known.

It's weird isn't it that we can zoom in to the sub atomic level and just keep going and going. All the space between particles, there is more nothing than there is something!!

Just for you Martin from one of my favourite films...

"The Incredible Shrinking Man"

"I was continuing to shrink, to become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I the man of the future?
If there were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast new world?
So close - the infinitesimal and the infinite.

But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept.
The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet - like the closing of a gigantic circle.

I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God's silver tapestry spread across the night.
And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension.

I had presumed upon nature, that existence begins and ends in man's conception, not nature's. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing.
My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something.

And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too.
To God, there is no zero. I still exist"


Fozia (Zaid) our Universe is indeed large but if some of the theorists are right (and they may well be) we might just be
one of many universes (perhaps living within the same dimesion perhaps not) and if this is the case then can you
imagine this...it would be like the above "Incredible Shrinking Man" except but in reverse.

Humankind may well never explore our own Galaxy never mind the whole of our Universe but if there are indeed
many multi universes and some say there could be millions if not billions of these then just what are they within
and how big as a whole would this be...Stranger and Stranger.
Perhaps one day we will discover an advanced civilization and they will give us the answers to some of these
questions we have, indeed they may well come from a different Universe from ours (now wouldn't that be something)