Incredible Distances!

Fascinating and exciting as I find this latest discovery of what may be a similar planet to earth I have to laugh at the way they bandy phrases like "1,400 light years away" like there's the slightest possibility of us ever visiting it. Bearing in mind that a light year is actually 5.88 Trillion miles, and if you were to start counting out a pile of stones of ONE trillion at 1 a second it would take 31,688 years and you wouldn't finish until the year 33,703 AD (321 generations hence) and probably end up with the equivalent of Mount Everest. So multiply 1,400 by 5.88 trillion and that's how far away it is! And this is the closest one they've found. Don't get me wrong, I am in constant awe of these discoveries but the thing that really blows me away are the incredible distances we're talking about when it comes to space :-)

Kepler 452b revealed as most similar planet to ours ever found with a 'substantial opportunity for life'... but its days may already be numbered.