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Insignificance


navarre

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Here's a nice thing for some scale: In September 2003 the Hubble Space Telescope stared for just under 11 days into a seemingly empty patch of sky. The following image was taken, and contains an area that would be covered if, when standing on Earth, you had a 1x1mm piece of paper a metre away from you:

 

opo0428b.jpg

 

There you can see an estimated 10,000 galaxies, each one containing between ten million and one trillion stars, all in at tiny, unremarkable patch of sky. With that many stars, each with possible planets around it, the concept that we are the only planet to harbour life seems ridiculous.

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Here's a nice thing for some scale: In September 2003 the Hubble Space Telescope stared for just under 11 days into a seemingly empty patch of sky. The following image was taken, and contains an area that would be covered if, when standing on Earth, you had a 1x1mm piece of paper a metre away from you:

 

opo0428b.jpg

 

There you can see an estimated 10,000 galaxies, each one containing between ten million and one trillion stars, all in at tiny, unremarkable patch of sky. With that many stars, each with possible planets around it, the concept that we are the only planet to harbour life seems ridiculous.

 

I love pictures like that, or just of other galaxies and stars and all that. The universe is amazing.

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Here's a proper head fuck for you.

If the universe is infinite, largely made of nothing and constantly expanding....

 

what is it expanding in to?

 

is there a space less than nothing? are there other universes in this void beyond the void? It's utterly beyond human comprehension- I mean that literally. If you think about it, all you can come up with is a lack of words and meaning. A gap that we, as a civilisation, have no means of filling.

 

I love space.

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Here's a proper head fuck for you.

If the universe is infinite, largely made of nothing and constantly expanding....

 

what is it expanding in to?

 

is there a space less than nothing? are there other universes in this void beyond the void? It's utterly beyond human comprehension- I mean that literally. If you think about it, all you can come up with is a lack of words and meaning. A gap that we, as a civilisation, have no means of filling.

 

I love space.

 

I cant remember what the answer is but I asked that question a few years ago to someone and they did give a proper answer on the theory. Will have to try and find it.

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Estimates put VY Canis Majoris at 1800 to 2100 solar radi, meaning it's about 8-9 times bigger than Antares. Mind boggling stuff.

 

This picture, called Pale Blue Dot, is amazing.

pale_blue_dot.jpg

It's a picture of Earth, taken by Voyager 1 at 6.4 million kilometres away (beyond Pluto's orbit). It's the spot in the yellow band (caused by radiation, not Earth's orbit).

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Estimates put VY Canis Majoris at 1800 to 2100 solar radi, meaning it's about 8-9 times bigger than Antares. Mind boggling stuff.

 

This picture, called Pale Blue Dot, is amazing.

pale_blue_dot.jpg

It's a picture of Earth, taken by Voyager 1 at 6.4 million kilometres away (beyond Pluto's orbit). It's the spot in the yellow band (caused by radiation, not Earth's orbit).

 

Carl Sagan (a legend in his own right) talking the Pale Blue Dot:

 

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