First of all, a heads up: this post is going to
be about two thousand, and some, words long.
Now, over the last couple of weeks I have been
obsessed with the planetary conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. Every time I
stepped out after dusk, my eyes would tilt upwards and towards west seeking out
two bright non-twinkling objects hanging out in apparent close proximity. I have
also been searching online for spectacular pictures of the event and making
resolve after resolve to snap one myself. I eventually did, not spectacular by
any means, but my ever-handy camera phone did not let me down.
Talking of Jupiter, here is some food for
thought. If Earth was the size of a pea, then Jupiter would be approximately
the size of a tennis ball while the Sun would be the size of a basketball.
Think about it for a minute. No, seriously, do. Then look at the picture below. Maybe that
will give you a better idea. (Click on the picture for enhanced readability)
This however is only part of the story. A tiny,
miniscule part when it comes to the grand scale of the Cosmos. Instead of
rehashing what is out there I encourage you to read this Nova article
and check out an all-time favorite picture of mine, the Hubble Deep Field.
You could also Google, in completely non-egotistical manner, “How big are we”, and
snoop around a little bit. May the force be with you!
2 comments:
Nice post! I love posts about the Universe and you put in a lot of work adding your informative jokes to the NASA picture!
Anyhoo, could you shed some light onto why the Hubble Deep Field is one of your fav pics? Would be interested in hearing/reading your thoughts.
For me it gives me a great perspective as to how unimportant we are and how insignificant our day to day activities/quarrels/squabbles are....wait! I am depressed now...
Thank you! You are too kind.
The Hubble Deep Field picture, beyond being a scientific marvel in itself, puts the Earth in, as you said, rather sharp perspective. To me, more than our insignificance, it is the endless possibilities out there that I am enthralled about.
I remember reading an article on BBC (it might have been a photo montage) many a months ago that explained things rather nicely. Cant seem to find it now. But ya, maybe one day, I'll write more about this!
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