The email came with the message, "This is enough to make me feel insignificant. Can you believe the size of these things?"
The Orion NebulaCourtesy: Hubble Space Telescope
I hear that quite a bit: that photos from space confirm how small we are. I'm not sure what's behind the sentiment; I know only that I don't really share it.
My sense of it is that I know the universe is big and all the objects out there are remote. The photos I've seen seem to make the universe seem cozier and friendlier. Yes it's grand; it's just not grandiose.
The universe is adorned with planets and stars and quasars and clouds, comprised of so mush gas and light and various elements; it all seems rather remote and abstract. The photos help to bring it all into focus; the effect (for me at least) is to make the universe seem more clear and concrete and personal. It's a nice, cozy little universe after all.
Posts
1 comment:
Late comment, I know. :P
For a long time, I've thought that everything Out There that we're just now seeing was put there so that we'd have something to look at once we got to this level of technological development. Everything that exists does so for a reason, after all. If we get to higher tech-levels, maybe we can farm them for resources. Right now, though, I'm content with the sky being a wonderfully-painted canvas.
Post a Comment