28 | Will aliens try to: a) replace us b) help us c) kill us d) eat us e) other

Someday something's coming
From way out beyond the stars
To kill us while we stand here
It'll store our brains in mason jars.
— The Mountain Goats | Lovecraft in Brooklyn 2008

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own. Yet across the gulf of space, … intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. … (But) before we judge them (the Martians) too harshly, we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought. … Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?
— H. G. Wells | The War of the Worlds 1898

“I'm frequently asked, ‘Do you believe there's extraterrestrial intelligence?’ I give the standard arguments; there are a lot of places out there, the molecules of life are everywhere, I use the word ‘billions’, and so on. Then I say it would be astonishing to me if there weren't extraterrestrial intelligence, but of course there is as yet no compelling evidence for it.”
— Carl Sagan | Scientist and Author 1934-1996

There's a whole lotta time and space out there:
- The universe is 13.7 billion years old
- There are between six and twenty trillion galaxies in the universe
- Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, contains 100 billion-400 billion stars
- Its diameter is 100,000-120,000 light years (1 light year = 10 trillion kilometres)
- The central bulge is 12,000 light years thick, the disk is 1,000 light years thick
- Our nearest neighbour galaxy, Andromeda, is 2.5 million light years from us
- Each sun-like star in the Milky Way likely harbours one half to one rocky planet in the range of orbital distances where liquid water could be stable on the surface
- Liquid water is necessary for life as we understand it

Music and image credits:
Lovecraft in Brooklyn by the Mountain Goats  from their 'Heretic Pride' album
Huge, really pissed off alien  by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Maple Leaf by Vectoro Artworks from Vecteezy
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock