The European Space Agency is compiling a 3D map of the Milky Way, showing the color and brightness of 1.8 billion stars. In this image, we are located where the lines for 180 degrees vertically and 90 degrees horizontally cross.
If we were able to travel at the speed of light for the rest of our lives, we would not get out of the pixel we are currently in.
The Milky Way is one galaxy. There are about 2,000,000,000,000 galaxies... in the observable universe (via Hubble). Note for comparison the small circle around us in the image designating the limits of what the human eye can see when looking at the sky.
These are data that need to be considered if/when we ponder why we exist and what our purpose is/should be.
Want more? There are over 600 images accessible via this link.
"If we were able to travel at the speed of light for the rest of our lives, we would not get out of the pixel we are currently in." Well said. So difficult to conceptualize our place in the universe.
ReplyDeleteCodex:
ReplyDeleteWhy do we exist?
Unask the question.
(Zen Buddhism)
Thank you for this link. Had some questions regarding blog settings. Do I ask here?
Sure. Ask away.
DeleteSo, we are naught but data points on a very partial pixel now.
ReplyDeleteSo it would seem. Alternatively, this entire setup (2 trillion galaxies x billion stars each x 10 planets per star = verybignumber) was all created for humans. Some people have that point of view.
Delete"was all created for humans" and all we can do is look at.... A small portion of it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that's enough. One viewpoint (as good as many others) is that the entire cosmos is one thing, and that all parts of it are eternally "connected" as our atoms are eventually recycled into other material. From that standpoint, our "purpose" in existing as humans is to be able to view and somehow appreciate the enormousness of the entity.
DeleteCodex: 42?
ReplyDeleteI'm being facetious. Kind of. Physics doesn't really ponder those questions, good science fiction does.(some written by physicists)
The church couldn't explain the science, didn't want to lose it's power if the sun didn't revolve around the earth.
I stopped asking the question at an early age. It's inconceivably big. Our brains aren't made to truly grasp such large numbers. Not yet, anyway.
Do you read scifi?
All my life. Subscribed to the paper 35c magazines, consumed most of the golden age authors (Bradbury, Heinlein, Azimov, van Vogt, Poul Anderson, Alfred Bester, and especially Brian Aldiss). Still have a file cabinet drawer full of comic books, which I hope to excerpt and post here on the blog before selling on eBay.
DeleteAlistair Reynolds Excession?
DeleteOlaf Stapleton, Simmons Hyperion Quartett?
Which bester do you recommend? (Unfamiliar with him)
Movie Sunshine?
Wish my comic books hadn't been discarded.
Codex: above. Get a little carried away when it comes to scifi.
Delete@ Anonymous/Codex, I can't speak with any authority re Alred Bester. His famous book was "The Demolished Man" (Hugo best novel), but the one I remember best was "The Stars My Destination" with Gully Foyle teleporting through the cosmos. I had that book on my shelf until the Great Purge of Books Available in the Library that began when I was in my 70s.
Delete(FWIW, teleporting might be the way for us to get out of our pixel)
Sunshine I loved as a movie. I think that was the first time I noticed Cillian Murphy as an actor.