The Truth is out there

Today's post is going to be dedicated to Space, aliens and the unknown! Exciting, I know.

First of all, did you know that our government set up a program to work on contacting alien life? I think it is no longer government funded, but is instead now private. It is called SETI (which stands for Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, I think). The Mission of the SETI Institute is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe. They listen out for possible proof of alien life. In 1974 they sent out a huge broadcast using the Arecibo radio telescope, which is in Puerto Rico and is HUGE (and pictured above). I think it is 1000 feet in diameter and covers about 20 acres. So far, SETI hasn't had any proof of intelligent alien life, as far as we know...

Did you know that all our radio transmissions and cell phone conversations and such travel into space? They transmit from our phone and just keep going and going and going. Someone recently explained this to me, and I may get it wrong here on the blog, but it goes something like this. Our first radio signals started around a little over 100 years ago (the end of the 1800's actually), so they are now 100 light years out from Earth, which isn't very far in terms of distance in Space. So, really, it seems very unlikely that any alien intelligence out there has received our transmissions because alien life isn't that close in to Earth. Does this make sense? It's wild to me to imagine all our cell phone conversations heading out to space...

Meanwhile, in the UK, Doritos is working on advertising in Space... Some companies will do anything for advertising!

And, about a year ago, an unusual meteor landed in Peru, unusual because it didn't follow the usual "meteor rules." It also seemed to make people who visited the crash site sick...

My 11 year old, Donny, is teaching me about Dark Matter. And, he also taught me that Pluto is no longer a planet, which is obviously different from what I learned, and I think everyone has heard that in the news.

During my searches today about Space, I learned there is the possibility of space tornadoes.

I am so fascinated by deep space and what's out there, what we know and don't know about it all. We have so much to learn still. Some of the best pictures I've seen come from the Hubble Telescope, NASA's orbiting telescope. You can sign up for their astronomy emails and news alerts also.

We're never too old to learn more, and we should never cease our quest for knowledge!