That speck is the Earth, seen from very, very, very far away. The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by Voyager 1 from a record distance, showing it against the vastness of space. ...




Carl Sagan wrote -

Quote:Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...t=1&f=1001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

The vastness of space is something I have never, and will probably never, be able to completely wrap my head around.

Don't you think we should take better care of ourselves? For those that will inherit the Earth. It is the limitless vastness of space that is our limitation, but also makes us limitless.

And if you go keep going farther out the sun (and even the galaxy) become totally insignificant. Rather mind-boggling.

(02-12-2010 10:09 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  And if you go keep going farther out the sun (and even the galaxy) become totally insignificant. Rather mind-boggling.

Reminds me of that star comparison. Our sun isn't even a pixel compared to the largest in the universe.

To me this shows how arrogant the human race is. (Using the collective we here..)

- We think we know that the world came here because of (insert God here)
- We think we know that our religion is right ... and all those other ones are wrong
- We think we can successfully operate nuclear power endlessly, when one slip up is disastrous, an the waste is toxic for longer than the duration of recorded history
- We consider ourselves masters of our environment ... yet we can't even travel to the closest planet, or get Al Gore to shut up about how global warming is causing all these snowstorms
- We look down upon other species as inferior, without denoting that they for the most part don't engage in killing themselves at nearly the propensity we do

Yea, last I saw, VY Canis Majoris is supposed to be the biggest star that's been measured, around 1800-2100 solar radii, though there's some dispute about whether it's quite that big. There are plenty of others measured at several hundred solar radii. Just unbelievable.

People of Earth, your attention please. This
is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the galactic hyperspace
planning council. As you are no doubt aware, the plans for
the development of the outlying regions of the western
spiral arm of the galaxy require the buliding of a
hyperspace expressroute through your star system. And,
regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for
demolishion. The process will take slightly less than two
of your Earth minutes. Thank you very much.

There's no point in acting all surprised
about it! All the planning charts and demolishion orders
have been on display at your local planning department in
Alpha Centuri for fifty of your Earth years,

(02-12-2010 11:26 AM)DrTorch Wrote:  People of Earth, your attention please. This
is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the galactic hyperspace
planning council. As you are no doubt aware, the plans for
the development of the outlying regions of the western
spiral arm of the galaxy require the buliding of a
hyperspace expressroute through your star system. And,
regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for
demolishion. The process will take slightly less than two
of your Earth minutes. Thank you very much.

There's no point in acting all surprised
about it! All the planning charts and demolishion orders
have been on display at your local planning department in
Alpha Centuri for fifty of your Earth years,

Uh oh, if that's the case, I'm outta here!

(02-12-2010 11:26 AM)DrTorch Wrote:  People of Earth, your attention please. This
is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the galactic hyperspace
planning council. As you are no doubt aware, the plans for
the development of the outlying regions of the western
spiral arm of the galaxy require the buliding of a
hyperspace expressroute through your star system. And,
regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for
demolishion. The process will take slightly less than two
of your Earth minutes. Thank you very much.

There's no point in acting all surprised
about it! All the planning charts and demolishion orders
have been on display at your local planning department in
Alpha Centuri for fifty of your Earth years,

So if we see any ugly yellow ships hovering above the Earth,we should be concerned?

This seems like an appropriate place to ask, has anyone read the last? (next?) book of the inreasingly inaacurately named Hitchiker's triology, the one that wasn't written by Douglas Adams? Is it worth picking up?

According to the inflationary big bang theory, there could be a multitude of entire other universes, isolated from our own by pockets of rapidly expanding space. No matter how long the universes (universi?) expand, they will never intersect because the rate of inflation of the intervening space is too great.

Check this out - it covers the vastness of space both large and small. Very cool app. Mesmerizing almost.

The Scale of the Universe

Looking at that picture you kinda think that all the wars we're fighting, have ever fought or ever will fight seem mighty insignificant.

(02-12-2010 10:34 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  Looking at that picture you kinda think that all the wars we're fighting, have ever fought or ever will fight seem mighty insignificant.

Not to those who fought in them.

(02-12-2010 05:36 PM)jh Wrote:  This seems like an appropriate place to ask, has anyone read the last? (next?) book of the inreasingly inaacurately named Hitchiker's triology, the one that wasn't written by Douglas Adams? Is it worth picking up?

My BIL said it was just a bunch of notes and thoughts for future writing. Too random and not very interesting.