How big is space and will we ever find another earth like planet?
Space is not infinite – it is expanding exponentially and growing at an almost infinite pace – but it is most certainly finite at any given time. Conservative estimates as to the size of the Universe say it is about 156 billion light years in diameter – and still expanding of course. We are only able to see about 13.7 billion light years in any given direction because light has only had 13.7 billion years to travel. We cannot see any further than that simply because it hasn’t arrived yet. And to give an idea of the scale of just this observable universe let’s think about what is in it. Our sun is a star – one of about 100 billion in our Milky Way Galaxy. Our galaxy is just one of again about 100 billion galaxies. That means in just the universe we can see (our backyard if you think about the scale as a whole) we could see 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars – most of which house planets very similar to what we see in our own solar system – or at least variations on them. Among those
