• Question: Is out there, really there?

    Asked by aliksdralks to Helen, Ian on 24 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 24 Jun 2011:

      This is more a question for “I’m a philosopher, get me out of here”, but let’s have a go! I think you’re asking something along the lines of “If a tree falls in forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” In my opinion, matter does not require human observation to exist and exists persistently (all the time). Otherwise, where does it go? It would need to be stored somewhere and reloaded every time somebody looked at it – that doesn’t sound very likely to me. Although it could explain why my socks keep disappearing.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 24 Jun 2011:

      Or do you mean ‘out there’ as in beyond Earth, or outer space, or beyond our galaxy? There is a lot of evidence for what goes on beyond our planet- in fact, as you probably know, we’ve even been there! The first spaceship to go beyond the orbit of the earth was in 1959, and since then we’ve sent crafts to explore all of the other planets in our solar system, and their moons. We’ve also made observations of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the group of galaxies it belongs to (which contains about 200 billion galaxies!!) We really are just a little spec in the great ‘out there’!

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