our place in the universe
I love astronomy. I used to out in the summer time and star gaze with my telescope that now collects dust in the back room, and I still plan to some day take the hobby up again, but the subject continues to and always will fascinate me. It's a humbling science. The sense of smallness one gets when gazing through the telescope, of just how vast the universe truly is, of just how insignifcant our little planet is in the grand scheme of everything, never fails to strike me with overwhelming awe. For example, this lovely photo:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA11828.jpg
It is a stunning picture of two galaxies colliding. Galaxies. Two balls of whirling, spinning stars running into each other at speeds to fast to wrap our minds around. Billions of stars being flung together. It's the train wreck of all train wrecks. As if the sense of enormity and size of this weren't enough, if you examine the picture more closely, looking at the fields of stars around this catastrophe, you'll realize that half the stars in the photo aren't even stars at all, but other galaxies residing millions of light years further away. Billions of stars contained within one tiny smear of light. It's a strange and truly humbling feeling to try and imagine the scope of what you are looking at, because really, it's impossible. The mind just cannot grasp numbers on this scale. Anyway, just thought I'd share.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA11828.jpg
It is a stunning picture of two galaxies colliding. Galaxies. Two balls of whirling, spinning stars running into each other at speeds to fast to wrap our minds around. Billions of stars being flung together. It's the train wreck of all train wrecks. As if the sense of enormity and size of this weren't enough, if you examine the picture more closely, looking at the fields of stars around this catastrophe, you'll realize that half the stars in the photo aren't even stars at all, but other galaxies residing millions of light years further away. Billions of stars contained within one tiny smear of light. It's a strange and truly humbling feeling to try and imagine the scope of what you are looking at, because really, it's impossible. The mind just cannot grasp numbers on this scale. Anyway, just thought I'd share.