Our Existence in the Universe - a quest...
If we were to squeeze the timeline of the universe in one Earth year, we would have the following: The Universe began with a Big Bang on 1st of January, the earth came to being in September, the dinosaurs went extinct on 30th December, while the modern humans evolved at 11:58 p.m on 31st December *. The timeline is stupendous and if we were to observe the universe, we realize that it seems to have its own rhythm and there seems to be no hurry.
The known universe is 13 billion light-years across. Among hundreds and thousands of group of galaxies, The Milky Way belongs to a small group of galaxies called the Local Group. The Sun is 25 000 light-years (half-way) from the center of the galaxy. In all this gigantic architecture of the universe lies a miniscule planet we call home.
The grandeur of the universe in all aspects is daunting, awe-inspiring and unfathomable. It is then one starts to wonder why we exist? What is our role in the universe, our raison-d'être? My quest through studying the properties of Brown Dwarfs and their formation is to answer this very question.
* Idea taken from Cosmic Perspective 3rd Ed. Following image of Sombrero Galaxy taken from NASA
