To quote Douglas Adams, 'Space is big.' Like, distances too massive for us to even comprehend, distances so huge that the fastest thing in the universe takes millennia to cross the distances between them. Heck, even inside our solar system light takes hours to reach Pluto*. And, by comparison, the biological machinery that makes up my retina is actually and literally microscopic.
But I can still see stars. And that is terrifying.
We always think of stars as being nice twinkly things, or maybe vaguely as 'like the sun, so kinda hot and bright'. But the amount of energy that these things put out is so inconceivably massive that even across trillions of trillions of kilometres, our eyes, which are composed of just a handful of microscopic light-sensitive cells, our eyes which sometimes have serious problems reading a street sign at more than a few metres, can still see them.
I'll admit, that blew my mind a little bit.
*Pluto, or the Pluto-Charon binary system since its moon is almost the same size, should totally still be a planet, and I'm definitely not just saying that cause it messes up what I learned as a kid and just sounds wrong.
I'm a bit saddened by the fact that we do not see the same stars, I must say. But we can all look at the sky in awe and wonder about the universe, though.
ReplyDeleteThat'd make a pretty good topic actually, constellation comparison. Only problem is that they're notoriously hard to photograph.
DeleteI guess if anyone from the northern hemisphere fancies a shot (heh) at astrophotography and wants to partner up for the next freestyle week?
I love looking at the stars. They fascinate and intrique me.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have to admit to rarely thinking of the science and reality behind their beauty. I am usually content in just sitting and watching them and letting my mind wander.
But it is amazing when you do start to think about what they are and how far away they actually are. Mind boggling indeed.
Pluto is a planet, I'm against the conspiracy to slander our beloved celestial body.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing quite like looking at a cloudless sky and seeing billions and billions of stars. It's so beautiful and humbling. I love looking at the night sky, thinking about how humongous space is, how amazing those stars, nebulae and planets are, it gives me this funny dizzy feeling sometimes. Then I have to stop thinking about it too much because even the humongous distances are really is beyond comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI find it baffling that we can even see the edge of our Galaxy from Earth( http://i42.tinypic.com/21f03g5.jpg ) despite the amazingly humongous distance we are from it!