Multiply 8 (the average number of planets in
a solar system) by 100,000,000,000 (the average
number of solar systems in a galaxy) by
2,000,000,000,000 (the estimated number of
galaxies in the Cosmos) and you will have the
approximate number of planets in the Cosmos.
But remember, the Cosmos is infinite.
And yet, while planet Earth is a little more than
4.5,000,000,000 years old and human beings
have inhabited it for about 200,000 years, Earth
remains the only planet in the infinite Cosmos
that we know sustains human life. In terms of
probability, how can this be true? What is most
surprising is not that extraterrestrials may or may
not have visited planet Earth, but that they have
not yet landed in the Rose Garden and held a
news conference to introduce formally themselves.
Do the math. We are certainly not alone.
Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks
A graduate of Andover and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and human-rights advocate his entire adult life. He recently finished his novel, A CHILD FOR AMARANTH.
