The stars. The galaxies. Everything beyond what we – as a planet, a solar system, a galaxy - are. What’s out there?

Of course, the obvious answer is what the scientists and the astronomers have already discovered and proved to us. There are millions of other stars, each one the “center” of another galaxy altogether. There are stars that are ten times the size of ours, but we only know a small amount about those stars and not much about what surrounds them. Are there more planets? Is there other life?

No, I’m not talking about aliens and UFO’s. I mean, is there other intelligent life - and by intelligent I mean equal to our human race - out on other planets, in other galaxies, that look up at the same stars as we do and wonder the same things?

We would have no idea. There is no way for us to even visit another galaxy without first developing a way to bend space.

Wait, did you read that correctly?

That’s right, you did. Bend space. Actually, space is “bending” all the time. It bends around the planets and the stars because of their gravity and the way they move, but in order to bend space to travel to the closest galaxy- which is about 4 million light years away- scientists and astronomers would need to find something with an immense mass to accomplish the task.

But just think about it. What if, one day, we did accomplish that feat and we found another race of people that have been wondering the same things we have been for decades. Can we really be the only people in that endless area above our heads?

Or even more, what if those people from other galaxies or solar systems are even more advanced than we are at this point and they reach us first? What if all of a sudden a space shuttle or another form of traveling through space landed somewhere Earthh, but they weren’t from Earth?

Or, think about this. Think about how small we are compared to just the Earth. And then think about how small the Earth is compared to the star in our solar system, the sun. Now think back to your science classes and think about how small our sun and our solar system is compared to everything that has the possibility in space. In essence, we are just a small spec on the big picture of things. So what are the possibilities of us being the only form of life in that whole picture?

What is possible outside of what we are and what we know? Couldn’t there be planets that are similar to Earth and have the capabilities of having life? There’s an infinity of possibilities, but when will we figure them out? Will we ever, or will this always be a mystery that scientists and astronomers work to discover?

For now, I suppose we’ll be left to our own imaginations to think about what could possibly be waiting for us out in the expanse overhead.