Here is a thought to ponder. The furthest galaxy known to man from earth, is 13 billion light years away. This means, the light we are seeing from the stars in that system today, was emitted from those stars, 13 billion years ago. The closest star system is 4.3 light years away. If today, the rest of the universe outside of our solar system were to end, we wouldn't know about it for at least 4.3 years, since that is the closest other star system we are aware of, and it would take that long for the light from any explosion, or the lack of light from those stars to reach us. To boggle the mind even further, since many of the stars we look at during the night are millions and billions of light years away, many, or even most, may not even be in existence today. We may just be seeing the light of what they used to look like all those years ago. We may indeed be alone in the universe and not even know it yet.
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