But there's a distance where such structures would probably fill the night sky because you were close but not too close. Some of these structures aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye, even if close, but some are. I wonder what that would do if you were on a planet where the horsehead nebula (or something similar) filled the sky and its brightness rivalled the Moon.
Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
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Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
#142Wow. The NIRCam image is probably going to be the most exciting new photo, but I can't get over how well MIRI reveals the internal structure of the nebula. NIRCam: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/04/Horsehead_... MIRI: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/04/Horsehead_... Comparison: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/04/Slider_Too...
And when 'zooming in' and seeing the top 2/3 of the photo ( https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/im... ) I am super amazed that all these small discs showing are galaxies. GALAXIES (sorry for the caps). How tiny are we (Humans, Earth, Solar system)... less than a speck of dust in the Sahara. I used to look up in space when I was growing up and there wasn't any light pollution to the small town I…
Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
What if the only place where intelligent life was ever possible in the universe is being actively made impossible to live in by intelligent beings, which means after they're gone extinct, there'll be no intelligent beings to appreciate its beauty?
Buddhism is deeply rooted in reincarnation and the progression of a common person to an enlightened being through different ranks over the span of multiple lifetimes. I am pretty sure there is a dimension of life that we have yet to discover and learn about. And for the time being Buddhism is the only “religion” that openly discusses this progression. Hinduism has the same but in my experience it’s a lot more reserve…
But given the universe in total may be unimaginably larger than our observable universe, and the total universe may well be an insignificant feature of an unimaginably larger reality, its quite possible that versions of us appear in a fractal-like way, over and over across reality.
Also, given the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which is the most basic (Occam's razor) interpretation of the equations, we are constantly spinning off a foam of combinatory alternatives of ourselves and everything around us, because the particles that make us up are doing that. So we live many lives, and even when we die in one perceived timeline, other versions of ourselves continue their journey.
Both of those are scientifically plausible, especially the second - which many scientists already believe to be true.
Although they sensibly tend to focus on interpretation at the particle level, avoiding the hype and wishful mysticism that would tend to crop up around its implications for us as individuals. Too many imaginative people and popularizers have a tendency to jump from actual equations/constraints they don't understand, to non-scientific psychologically motivated "implications" and ideologies. Quantum mechanics has been abused enough that way.
Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
#144For a sense of scale, the Horsehead Nebula has a diameter of 7 light years which is greater than the distance of 4 light years from us to Proxima Centauri.
Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
#145Total noob question here and I apologize in advance. Are these the “actual” pictures or are they “touched up” by an artist ? If they the real pictures then this is truly impressive …
Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
#146Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
#147Gorgeous and upsetting that I'll never be able to visit it. 13 billion years before me, potentially trillions of years after me. Seems like such a waste of the spark of awareness that I can't take that awareness and experience the galaxy in all its glory.
Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
#148Anyone else get the strangest sinking feeling in the final seconds when it's almost fully zoomed in and you come to the realization that the hundreds of specs in the distance are GALAXIES?
Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
#149That's an incredibly detailed image. Every single time I see one of these amazing space pics, it's hard not to get all philosophical and wonder about the size of space & time on cosmic scale, how small our earth is and how insignificant our regular problems are. I don't care if I don't get to see flying cars or AGI in my lifetime but I will be very disappointed if our knowledge of space remains more or less the same…
> it's hard not to get all philisophical and wonder about the size of space & time on cosmic scale Indeed! Never a bad time to re-watch Cosmos and (in my opinion) the awesome sequel(s) by Neil de Grasse Tyson. Is it weird to admit I even choke up during some of the episodes? (As an aside, why is it so hard to find the sequels to Cosmos in any streaming service. In my country it's not on Netflix, Disney+, Apple, HBO/M…
Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
#150Wow. The NIRCam image is probably going to be the most exciting new photo, but I can't get over how well MIRI reveals the internal structure of the nebula. NIRCam: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/04/Horsehead_... MIRI: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/04/Horsehead_... Comparison: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/04/Slider_Too...
I love that there are multiple sensors that can be compared to like this, but also love when the optical images from Hubble are compared as well. The images that combine all of the frequencies from Chandra X-rays, Hubble's optical, and now Webb's IR make for some truly fascinating images.