http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVjF_7ensg
Next time you need to align your sense of your own importance, this video
should help. Hubble has once again given us perspective on our place in the
universe.
1E19 suns in the universe (est). Furthest galaxy 4.7E7 light years away,
receding faster than light. 1E11 galaxies in the universe (est).
Our sun is one in ten quintillion other suns. We're one in six billion humans
thereon. Try to even vaguely appreciate how small we are.
Carl Sagan, you've got to be right. Douglas Adams, you have no idea how right
you were.
> On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 10:15 PM, Tom B<kaladorn@gmail.com> wrote:
"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-
bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the
road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." -- Douglas
Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
What he said.
I think it was on this list, several years ago, that I said that Hubble was
worth it purely as a public art project; the science is just icing on a cake
of pure awesome. Anyone who doesn't have their
mind blown by the Deep Field/Ultra Deep Field images probably doesn't
have much of a mind to begin with!
_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lThe original
animation sweep into/out of the Ultra Deep Field is a three
minute long video narrated by Barbara Feldon (Agent 99 for those of you who
don't know). I have the dvd buried somewhere at home. Tony's youtube vid below
provides more context and observing history by including the original Deep
Field image.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e02aB49TFUA
If you want to read about the background and making of the video, and then
download your own copy of the movie, go here:
http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/exhibits/largefilm/
Download warning: the video over 600MB in size.
Mk
> On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 1:15 AM, Tom B <kaladorn@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVjF_7ensg
_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lOn Thu, Aug 13,
> 2009 at 9:08 AM, Indy <indy.kochte@gmail.com> wrote:
> The original animation sweep into/out of the Ultra Deep Field is a
Meant to say, the original Barbara Feldon narrated video is this link:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e02aB49TFUA
> If you want to read about the background and making of the video, and
Thanks Mark, I'm pulling the 672 Mb film now.
I was just thinking, if we are the only sentient species in the universe, we'd
*better* learn how to get off this planet before we muck it up irreparably,
since there would seem likely to be quite a few other planets of interest if
we can figure out how to get there.... (plenty of room for some good old GZG
factionalism among the stars).
On the same hand, if we are the only sentient species, we are pretty special.
Insignificant, but a real cosmic oddity. Of course, I don't imagine this to be
the case. I just wonder if humanity will live and die without ever meeting any
of the other likely intelligences in the universe. That might be sort of
tragic or it might be a good thing, depending on circumstances.
ObGZG: How many systems do we think humans have explored by the GZG game
period? I'm guessing we've colonized less than 100, maybe 150 if you count
every little outpost. Probably explored well not very many of those and
explored poorly maybe another 100 or 200. That's a pretty small spec even for
our local galaxy.
The HST images suggest a universe which leaves plenty of room for any homebrew
NAC splinter states... <G, D, R!>
There's another possibility, which is that our brand of life is very uncommon,
but that some other configuration is far more typical. For
example, if Europa-like moons are common, then you might have a huge
number of worlds with intelligent arthropods, cephalopods, etc, and
few or none with human-style land-dwelling life on it.
It might lead to a setting where the endless variety of intelligent seafood
all communicate and interact, while we end up the weirdos who
can take all the earth-like worlds but can't survive in a "normally"
(for them) habitable environment. Humans, though primitive, can expand quickly
into an established universe.
Rob
> On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 11:24 AM, Tom B<kaladorn@gmail.com> wrote: