do you ever contemplate the beauty, mystery, vastness and grandeur of the universe?
Author: Amy Johns / Category: planet beautyi seem to do this too often.
the universe, the earth, the stars, the sky, the planets, the galaxies…
what do you feel? what do you think?
what thoughts run through your mind?
Naturally.
In particular when I’m looking through my telescope at some object I’ve seen dozens of times, and notice a little more details.
Or when I get away from the dreaded suburban light pollution and see the night sky how it was meant to be seen… in the dark.
Some nights, I’ll do a lot of naked eye stargazing.
I will see a meteor, and think about how that bright, breif streak of light is 100km away, and just a pebble. Then look at the Moon, a mere 384,000km away. The Mars, farther away, yet still in our "astronomical" back yard. Then some star like Deneb, thousands of light years away. And, if the sky is dark enough, M31, the Andromeda Galaxy… over 2 million light years away!
I just get flabberghasted that all these things, at such various distances, can all be seen with just my eyes.
The univere is huge. I’m not overwhelmed, because no matter how much I love astronomy and look at the night sky, my life is here, on Earth. Everyone I have ever known lives here. Every place I have ever been, is right here. And with the exception of a few handfulls of people who have actually been to space, that is true for everyone on this planet.
The universe is grand, but this is still our home.
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7 Responses to “do you ever contemplate the beauty, mystery, vastness and grandeur of the universe?”
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Of course! Everyone does at one point
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January 4th, 2010 at 12:35 am
profound humility blended with wonder
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January 4th, 2010 at 12:50 am
Sure.. all the time. It’s a wild universe too. And the emptiness.. the stars are so remote from each other. I wonder where the nearest to earth intelligent minds are. And how many are strewn across the millions & billions of light-years..
It all puts our little existence here in perspective. About the billions of years before we were born, and the billions after we are gone.. it’s like we are just a micro dream amid the eons of non-existence..
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January 4th, 2010 at 1:12 am
Naturally.
In particular when I’m looking through my telescope at some object I’ve seen dozens of times, and notice a little more details.
Or when I get away from the dreaded suburban light pollution and see the night sky how it was meant to be seen… in the dark.
Some nights, I’ll do a lot of naked eye stargazing.
I will see a meteor, and think about how that bright, breif streak of light is 100km away, and just a pebble. Then look at the Moon, a mere 384,000km away. The Mars, farther away, yet still in our "astronomical" back yard. Then some star like Deneb, thousands of light years away. And, if the sky is dark enough, M31, the Andromeda Galaxy… over 2 million light years away!
I just get flabberghasted that all these things, at such various distances, can all be seen with just my eyes.
The univere is huge. I’m not overwhelmed, because no matter how much I love astronomy and look at the night sky, my life is here, on Earth. Everyone I have ever known lives here. Every place I have ever been, is right here. And with the exception of a few handfulls of people who have actually been to space, that is true for everyone on this planet.
The universe is grand, but this is still our home.
References :
January 4th, 2010 at 2:01 am
Every time I go out observing. It’s such a totally awesome experience that I can’t help but be amazed at everything I see.
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January 4th, 2010 at 2:27 am
More than any other subject, the universe is on my mind. The thing that most amazing me is the intrinsic hostility and violence that exists in the universe, the fact that Earth exists as a planet full of beauty and vibrant life is pure serendipity. In spit of most claims that there must be billions of planets like Earth, I doubt it very much.
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January 4th, 2010 at 2:53 am
All the time every day as far as I can remember. I like to explore, and learn, and I feel sooooo small when I think of how big the Cosmos is. But we don’t have to go too far away to realize how beautiful the Cosmos is, just look to a mirror and you can see what star dust has made after 4 billion years…
By the way, it seems you have limited yourself by contemplating only the Universe… as far as we know, it could be one out of infinite multiverses, so I always rather refer to the Cosmos when talking about everything.
We know so much already, but it is still so little what we know… Carl Sagan said we are entering to the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean. I think we haven’t even touch the water yet. We have no idea of what is out there, but still, we will find out, and at the same time, we will realize there is still much more to uncover.
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