Is it worth taking the risk to travel to far-off places?

With so much negativity being portrayed all around the earth (especially by the media outlets) should we still embrace the world and its people? Is it worth taking the risk to travel to far-off places?

If that sounds like a difficult question, consider this –

NASA’s Hubble has just uncovered the farthest star ever seen. It’s called Icarus and it’s hundreds of thousands of times bigger than our Sun. What’s more interesting is, it’s located effing FIVE BILLION LIGHT YEARS away from the earth.

Do you even realize the significance of the last statement you just read? If you travel at the speed of light (which is theoretically impossible – as of now) you’d still take FIVE BILLION YEARS to go somewhere near that star.

Suppose, let’s assume that scientists manage to discover (or steal one from aliens) a spaceship that can cover one-billion light years in one year (highly impossible, but still…), and suppose YOU are chosen as the ‘LUCKY ONE’ to travel in it.

You’d still take five years to reach somewhere near that star. Now, suppose you have reached the star and have taken a selfie with it. To be able to share that on Facebook or WhatsApp, you’ll still have to wait for five more years.

Now, even if you manage to reach the earth without any communication failure or spaceship malfunction, you’d still not have much to show. Chances that people (especially near and dear) might think you’ve taken a selfie with our sun sitting somewhere on the terrace of your house, perhaps on a solar eclipse day, instead of that star located five billion light years away are very very high.

Besides, how interesting would a dark sky with stars and one big sun in the background look? So, as you might have realized by now, there is no point in making such an ardent journey.

That’s why, dear readers, I am telling you to drop your inhibitions, pack your bags, catch a Lufthansa (they are sponsoring a contest for which this blog post was written – so don’t even think of taking another airline) and GOOOO 🙂

Whatever might happen to you, be assured you’ll still be much better off than that five-billion-light-year-star-selfie-guy.

So #SayYesToTheWorld, be open-minded, and love the world 😀


Destination Infinity

8 thoughts on “Is it worth taking the risk to travel to far-off places?

  1. KP

    Ha ha! that is a nice way to send people on a tour around the world in Lufthansa and is more enticing than the risky and uncertain trip in a spaceship to Icarus just to take a selfie!!

    1. Rajesh K

      Yea, our world seems to be a better place to tour around than that Icarus 😛

      Destination Infinity

  2. SG

    Spending billions of dollars and trying to find a star that is five billion light years away from earth is pure waste of money and time. We can feed the poor with that money. My opinion.

    1. Rajesh K

      There is an alternate thought that such endeavors enable us to develop new technologies that can be used in other industries. But then that money can also be directly used for R&D to develop new ways of solving pressing issues – malnourishment being one of them.

      Destination Infinity

    1. Rajesh K

      😀

      Destination Infinity

  3. QueenBee

    That is an interesting take on #SayYesToTheWorld contest!
    🙂

    1. Rajesh K

      Yea, but we’ll have to wait and see if it manages a prize – there seems to be hundreds of entries for this contest!

      Destination Infinity

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