"Perspective"

[Brian]

So every now and then my posts contain references to oblivion, life being temporary, the scale of nature and the significance of our experience and all that jazz.


Anyway, so I found this picture on another message board and I was like "THAT! That that that." and jabbed a finger at the screen, then saved it. Pretty interesting, I thought.

 

[Spare]

That's a pretty complex dust mote, as far as dust motes go.

 

[Bluebird]

That is truly powerful. What a different perspective one photo could put on things! You know it, but it's another thing to actually SEE it. Still, the concept of existence in itself is also something amazing.

 

[edgecrusher]

that is really awesome. it really makes you think.

 

[Brian]

There's something about it.

We've all seen the pictures of far off galaxies, panoramas of the milky way, things like that that make you say "Wow, thats big." But when I look at this, it's -just- us, and it's from something we launched off in to the void, Voyager. Can you imagine that solitude, out there? It must be incredible, and vast. Unimaginably vast, that comes to mind.

Aside from a lack of any other features or pretty colors, the graininess adds to the effect I think. It lays it bare with no frills attached.


For more cool voyager stuff, have some Sounds of Jupiter, recorded as the probe passed the gas giant:

[youtube]e3fqE01YYWs[/youtube]

 

[Badjedidude]

I always have those sorts of thoughts when I sit out at night and look at the stars. Cheesy and unoriginal? Probably. But I think everyone should take the time to go somewhere where there's no light pollution and just look up... and think about how many of those stars up there could hold civilizations that outshine our own, or think about how remote we are (we are NOT the center of the universe, as we often like to pretend we are).

*shrug*

 

[Nyx]

It's just so amazing, isn't it.

I have a poster of our galaxy with that Carl Sagan quote on it pointing to a barely visible dot... (this poster: http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/40/MPW-20424 )

 

[LGH1288]

Brian -- This thread is awesome! LG