After thinking about it for quite some time, I've decided that, in my opinion, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is the most important picture ever taken. While many argue that non-repeatable and awe-inspiring human events should be the root of "the most important picture," the HUDF shows that no matter how significant those pictures might seem, they are absolutely nothing on the scale of what really exists out there. A grain of sand on an infinite beach. I have never encountered any other picture that comes close to inspiring the simultaneous fear, awe, and wonder that this picture inspires. Thoughts?
From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
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Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes but technology does not progress linearly. So to us it may seem so impossible by methods we possess, but it may be closer than we think to travel throughout the universe. So a flash in the pan may be moot depending on the right technology. For example captain Jack sparrow trying to locate a ship in the ocean may seem like a huge task, and today it would be too if we use the same method back then. But if that ship…
I agree. Imagine gathering the hundreds of people that worked on the Apollo missions and fitting them in the room that housed the project's main computers. They might all fit. Then tell them before most of them were dead they would be able to put all of those computers in their pocket. Ok. Now imagine that we don't kill ourselves for the next thousand years. What are going to be able to do? What about ten thousand? I…
Thats an interesting bit. Thinking about numbers that is. But if you think about Singularity, it might seem like that might happen much sooner than you think.
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#13One thing I've always wondered about Hubble — if it's orbiting earth, scooping up protons for long periods of time, doesn't that mean it'll create a photo made up of the captures from every part of that small area....in the entire orbit? So two galaxies next to each other on the photo could be on the opposite sides of us really?
I really fail at cosmology…
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#14I still think Douglas Adams explained it best. "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." In a strange way, I think it gets the point across better than a precise description like "one hundred billion galaxies" ever could.
This was the one for me: "To be fair though, when confronted by the sheer enormity of distances between the stars, better minds than the one responsible for the Guide's introduction have faltered. Some invite you to consider for a moment a peanut in reading and a small walnut in Johannesburg, and other such dizzying concepts."
Like TP, he had an amazing penchant for explaining the unexplainable :)
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#15After thinking about it for quite some time, I've decided that, in my opinion, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is the most important picture ever taken. While many argue that non-repeatable and awe-inspiring human events should be the root of "the most important picture," the HUDF shows that no matter how significant those pictures might seem, they are absolutely nothing on the scale of what really exists out there. A gr…
> Thoughts?
Why does it inspire fear?
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#16One thing I've always wondered about Hubble — if it's orbiting earth, scooping up protons for long periods of time, doesn't that mean it'll create a photo made up of the captures from every part of that small area....in the entire orbit? So two galaxies next to each other on the photo could be on the opposite sides of us really? I really fail at cosmology…
They keep the telescope pointed at the same area of the sky of course. Stars (except for our sun) are so far away that both their real motion and their parallax motion (apparent motion of the stars due to us moving around the sun) appear very tiny. Hence the term 'fixed stars' from antiquity (as opposed to the 'wandering stars', which turned out to actually be planets one we got telescopes).
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#17One thing I've always wondered about Hubble — if it's orbiting earth, scooping up protons for long periods of time, doesn't that mean it'll create a photo made up of the captures from every part of that small area....in the entire orbit? So two galaxies next to each other on the photo could be on the opposite sides of us really? I really fail at cosmology…
Parallax isn't going to cause much error here. We're about 8 light-minutes from the sun, but the telescope was trained on galaxies millions (edit: billions) of light-years away.
Edit: Proportionally, it's about the difference of the view between your two eyes, of the sun.
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#18Can you imagine being there when these images were first compiled and revealed? I would have gaped in disbelief, and then wept. From a minuscule patch of nothingness, bottomless infinity has been glimpsed. It's unfathomable. And it's out there, right now, part of our existence. How awesome and thrilling.
How humbling.
And this is where religion gets it all wrong, the claim that all that was made just for us is so totally off the wall that I find it hard to believe that religion is changing so slowly to reflect the reality as we know it today.
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#19I still think Douglas Adams explained it best. "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." In a strange way, I think it gets the point across better than a precise description like "one hundred billion galaxies" ever could.
This was the one for me: "To be fair though, when confronted by the sheer enormity of distances between the stars, better minds than the one responsible for the Guide's introduction have faltered. Some invite you to consider for a moment a peanut in reading and a small walnut in Johannesburg, and other such dizzying concepts." Like TP, he had an amazing penchant for explaining the unexplainable :)
TP ?
Re: From one photo, we know there are at least one hundred billion galaxies
#20Can you imagine being there when these images were first compiled and revealed? I would have gaped in disbelief, and then wept. From a minuscule patch of nothingness, bottomless infinity has been glimpsed. It's unfathomable. And it's out there, right now, part of our existence. How awesome and thrilling.
How humbling. And this is where religion gets it all wrong, the claim that all that was made just for us is so totally off the wall that I find it hard to believe that religion is changing so slowly to reflect the reality as we know it today.
And this is where religion gets it all wrong, the claim that all that was made just for us....
Are you thinking about some particular religion, or religion in general?