Prabhupada: […] In the Fifth Chapter of the Brahma-samhita there is a description of the variegated planetary system that is within the material world. It is also indicated in the Bhagavad-gita that there are variegated planetary systems in hundreds of thousands of material universes, and that altogether these universes comprise only a fraction (one fourth) of the creative energy of the Godhead. The majority (three fourths) of the Lord’s creative energy is manifested in the spiritual sky, called the para-vyoma or the Vaikunthaloka. Full Chapter of EJ
"For many years scientists figured there were 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, but last year a Yale scientist figured the number was closer to 300 billion stars."
“Milky Way home to 50 billion planets: NASA”
The Associated Press | Feb 19, 2011 | 7:14 PM ET Scientists have estimated the first cosmic census of planets in our galaxy and the numbers are astronomical: at least 50 billion planets call the Milky Way home.
At least 500 million of those planets are in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold zone where life could exist. The numbers were extrapolated from the early results of NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler telescope.
William Borucki, who heads the Kepler project, says scientists took the number of planets they found in the first year of searching a small part of the night sky and then estimated how likely stars were to have planets. Kepler spots planets as they pass between the star they orbit and Earth.
So far Kepler has found 1,235 candidate planets, with 54 in the zone where life could possibly exist. Kepler’s main mission is not to examine individual worlds, but to give astronomers a sense of how many planets, especially potentially habitable ones, there are likely to be in our galaxy. They would use the one-400th of the night sky that Kepler is looking at and extrapolate from there.
Habitable zone
Borucki and colleagues figured one of two stars has planets and one of 200 stars has planets in the habitable zone, announcing these ratios Saturday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington.
And that’s a minimum because these stars can have more than one planet and Kepler has yet to get a long enough glimpse to see planets that are farther out from the star, such as Earth, Borucki said.
For example, if Kepler were 1,000 light years from Earth and looking at our sun and noticed Venus passing by, there’s only a 12 per cent chance Earth would also be seen, astronomers said.
To get the estimate for the total number of planets, scientists then took the frequency observed already and applied it to the number of stars in the Milky Way.
For many years scientists figured there were 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, but last year a Yale scientist figured the number was closer to 300 billion stars.
Either way it shows that Carl Sagan was right when he talked of billions and billions of worlds, said retired NASA astronomer Steve Maran, who praised the research but wasn’t part of it.
Scientists estimate there are 100 billion galaxies.
We are supposed to believe that the scientists have figured this all out because they put a magnifying glass barely above our thin skinned atmosphere. Talk about Dr. Frog philosophy. Everyone believes this “science” however, even though they cannot verify it, personally. The scientists say that stars and so forth are so many light years away. They say they are planning on going to Mars, etc. “Now, give us money,” is their follow-up mantra. Such big-big ideas yet they cannot even get the space shuttle to work. Either it explodes or there is some dangerous malfunction, and now they had to end the shuttle missions. They are going to explore the universe and they can’t even get this plane stuck on a rocket to work. A plane stuck on a rocket… what a brilliant idea. Like putting a firecracker on a bottle rocket. Did you ever really think about how silly this all is (to the tune of billion of dollars)? On the last shuttle mission, there was a secret spy payload on board for the US’s twisted military agenda. That is what all this space crap is about, a black hole for taxpayer dollars. The science is just a ruse, to legitimize the spending.
The Vedas say there is only one sun, and the rest of the luminaries are reflections, so why should I get all high-and-mighty “I know better” from my little office here in SW Florida? Why should I, who am looking at the universe through my flesh-and-blood eyeball instruments, as I sit on the globe like a minute piece of algae, with my barely-above-animal brain, that is housed inside a bone skull, think that I know better than the Vedas? Is it because I have a magnifying glass floating a few micro-millimeters in the sky?
It makes more sense to me that people are envious of God and are greedy, and will do anything to disprove God and the Vedas, for their material agenda.
This material world is nothing but the cheaters and the cheated, I believe, and the well-paid scientists are lemmings, sell outs, glorified used car salesmen, kissing up to those that cut them the checks. Unfortunately, the system is conning the youth through forced education and perpetuating this cycle of greed. Where is the course, Don’t Kill Animals 101?
Tomorrow another theory and then another and then another, each successive theory requiring the citizens to pay out. Why aren’t these big shot scientists, with their cushy jobs and erudite, celestially-aimed noses, pushing for an investigation into 9/11, why building 7 just “fell”? No, silence. Let’s go to Mars instead…
It is Kali Yuga, the Age of Hypocrisy. We must challenge everything said by the sudras-in-the-know, especially those with the veneer of education.