The Most Important Image Captured By Mankind

[Touring Mars]

makes me feel so small and insignificant

It really shouldn't - even though it is virtually certain that life exists elsewhere in the universe, one thing we do know for a fact is that life is an extremely rare form of matter, and that self-aware, conscious, intelligent life is an even rarer form of matter - and our little planet is the only place in our known universe that we know it exists on so far. Far from being small and insignificant, the human race is truly something outstanding and mind-bogglingly special in the grand scheme of things... and of course, the atoms that make up your body are not actually 'yours' - your body will only exist for a very finite time and then your atoms will eventually scatter back into a non-conscious form - possibly never to make up part of a conscious, intelligent being ever again...

 

[Mark T]

Was it just me or did everyone else have the fat kid come in at the start of the video and start singing? I think it was the Numa Numa song thingy.

Amazing video.

 

[Famine]

Pretty amazing in the fact that light travels at what, about 300,000,000 metres a second. So, if it took one year for the light to reach us, that means the thing giving off that light is around 9,460,800,000,000,000 metres away (if my maths is correct).

That's only one year, so how far away are these distant galaxies if the original photons of light from the formation of them still haven't reached us in billions of years?

132,451,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 metres - or 10,347,750,000,000,000,000 times around the Earth.

Well you did ask.

 

[exigeracer]

Of course if Hubble looked in a bit of sky where something already is for the same amount of time, you'd end up with a very, very bright picture of that object and not see anything like the UDF image behind it - the "local" light sources overwhelm the more distant ones.

And you'd expect, if we could shield the local sources, the UDF image to be repeated everywhere Hubble looks. The whole universe is packed with galaxies and globular clusters, with literally septillions upon septillions of stars.

This was my point. If you were to shield them, or if they weren't there, as I initially said and you just explained, things would be extremely interresting.

And we can't see a damn one of them with our eyes, much less our grandpa's telescope. We can't see many with any telescope on earth.

I do believe some of the most proximal galaxies to our own can be seen with the naked eye, like the Whirlpool Galaxy.

 

[Danoff]

Four words is all it takes to fully explain why this is so beautiful to me...

God's hand in creation.

When I look at amazing images like these it's easy to see why people believe in creation. I can tell that images this beautiful and amazing in scale solidify those with religious leanings toward their position. The whole thing is almost unimaginable, inconceivable to the human brain. The natural reaction is to ascribe some sort of mysticism to it.

...and maybe that's right...

But, being an atheist, when I look at these images I'm stricken with a near-religious inspiration with logic, mathematics, physics, and the simply amazing results that come from relatively simple laws of physics and interaction. It completely amazes me to think of a spiral galaxy resulting from equations as simple as F=ma - from chemical interactions as simple as electrons and protons, or basic magnetism, or gravitational attraction.

We make physics, chemistry, mathematics fairly complex, but when you think about the basic principles they're really quite simple. Contrary to popular opinion, I believe the universe has gotten much simpler the more we've known about it... when we've finally figured out where all of this stuff comes from, why it's here, why it has a place to go, why physics exists, or even logic for that matter - I have to think that the answer will be surprisingly simple.

And that's as inspiring to me as the simplicity of the answer to the question "where did humans come from?".

Logic.

 

[emad]

I didn't watch it yet, but I'm already in love with it because it incorporates some Pink Floyd

edit:
Now that I've seen it, I think it's freaking awesome and puts some meat behind my theory that we aren't alone in the universe. Oh, and 👍 for their use of Pink Floyd

 

[Evolution.]

132,451,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 metres - or 10,347,750,000,000,000,000 times around the Earth.

Well you did ask.

http://herrlucifer.blogspot.com/2005/08/inspired-by-cosmo.html

 

[DQuaN]

Ok, I was sure this has allready been discussed, but after 15mins of searching, I cannot find the thread so ill post it again.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is awe inspiring. If you haven't seen it, it will blow your mind and make you rethink everything you thought you knew about the universe.

Sit back, and take in what you are about to witness.

 

[exigeracer]

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=87989&highlight=mankind

Yeah guyy. Still an amazing topic, so I'm not going to complain. Such an amazing section of human though. t:tup:

 

[Slicks]

Wow.

Makes you wonder if there's anyone looking back.

 

[Spock]

Wow.

Makes you wonder if there's anyone looking back.

I Hope so. Be pretty shoddy if we were the only "intelligent" life in this 47billion light year expanse. I mean people here are, well, stupid.

 

[ferrari_chris]

I've seen this video before. I didn't remember the content, but I've seen it before.

He's right, it's too much for me to comprehend. In the mood I'm in right now, it leaves me feeling empty, and shows how insignificant we are.

I just want to get out there and just find one planet with life on it. But sadly, I know, that will probably never happen in my lifetime.

 

[DustDriver]

They should have named it the Humbling Telescope

 

[Metar]

It's incredible. (click for higher resolution)



And oh my god - HubbleSite.org offers a 60MB, 6200x6200px version!

 

[Joey D]

It's ludicrous to think that out of the trillions and trillions of planets Earth is the only one with some kind of life. I know people will say "then how come we haven't made contact with them yet?", well I personally believe ancient man had some form of contact with them but since that theory is still out there I will just say this, the universe is large, we are quite small, and things can only travel so fast. We haven't made contact yet because if another planet is inhabited with "civilisation" then they are still bound by the same physical laws that we are.

 

[daan]

Merged

 

[Metar]

Joey - to actually, spontaneously produce life... It's a matter of careful conditions, and, obviously, a lot of luck. It's pretty reasonable to believe there's not a living creature within hundreds of lightyears of the earth. And how would a prehistoric human interact with aliens while we, with all those radio and microwave devices, can't even conclude their existence?

 

[Joey D]

Joey - to actually, spontaneously produce life... It's a matter of careful conditions, and, obviously, a lot of luck. It's pretty reasonable to believe there's not a living creature within hundreds of lightyears of the earth. And how would a prehistoric human interact with aliens while we, with all those radio and microwave devices, can't even conclude their existence?

Even if the odds of a planet or orbiting body (a moon) of having life is one in a trillion that still means there are still millions and millions of planets out there with life on it of some kind. I don't know how people can even say that we are the only form of intelligent life in the universe. Also life could have arose differently on other planets, just because just about everything on our planet relies on some sort of energy system, water and air does not mean it is the same on some other world.

And the reason I believe ancient man had contact with other life forms is due to their descriptions of their gods. I don't really want to go into it because quite a few people on this board get rather "hostile" with the idea for whatever reason and I'm not looking to start some giant flame fest.

 

[Blake]

And the reason I believe ancient man had contact with other life forms is due to their descriptions of their gods.

I’m curious, actually. AFAIK most ancient civilisations described Gods that were similar to life on Earth; be it animals or humans or hybrids of various creatures…

 

[Joey D]

They described them the best way they knew how, chariots of fire, giant birds, etc. They weren't exposed to the same types of things we were (not that they weren't any less advanced). If you were an ancient person what would you call an object flying through the sky? We think of it as a spaceship but they had no concept of that.

I can't really explain it to well since I will probably leave out to many details, however if you are interested Erich von Däniken has some writings on this topic. While some of his theories I believe are incorrect he does give you some food for thought. There is also an entire religion based around this idea called Raëlian, and while I think it's bogus (like most religion to be honest) it still shows this idea has a following of some sort.

Like I said this is only a theory and if some evidence were to surface to say other wise I wouldn't hesitate to change my thoughts on the matter. I'm not even saying this is true nor do I believe it 100%, it's just an idea that I have gotten through the reading of different things.

 

[Metar]

I agree with your point that yes - there's a solid chance for more life somewhere in the uncharted universe.

But I don't agree about contact. First, why would they contact antique undeveloped civilizations, while keeping hidden from modern computer-equipped ones? And second, how would they hide so perfectly? An inhabited planet should contain some evidence, even if they aren't carbon-based like we are.

 

[Richardrfo]

I've watched this video so many times in the past and yet it still amazes me every time.

Absolutely mindblowing.

The mindboggling thing is I showed it to someone and they understood it, but chose to believe that there's nothing outside of our own atmosphere/solar system. It's like saying outside your house, the outside world isn't really there, someone's just made it up.

 

[exigeracer]

Joey - to actually, spontaneously produce life... It's a matter of careful conditions, and, obviously, a lot of luck. It's pretty reasonable to believe there's not a living creature within hundreds of lightyears of the earth. And how would a prehistoric human interact with aliens while we, with all those radio and microwave devices, can't even conclude their existence?

Why would you presume life would be dictated by earthly chemical and physiological rules? What about communication? How do we know all species communicate with the same waves as we do? That seems like a pretty bold assumption.

 

[Sureboss]

I've seen this video before. I didn't remember the content, but I've seen it before.

He's right, it's too much for me to comprehend. In the mood I'm in right now, it leaves me feeling empty, and shows how insignificant we are.

I just want to get out there and just find one planet with life on it. But sadly, I know, that will probably never happen in my lifetime.

Would it be life as you know it though? Would you recognize it as life?

Laws of probability state there is almost certainly some other kind of lifeform out there, however advanced or not it is. Given how blooming big the universe is though, chances of finding it, is about as likely as Brian Blessed being called quiet.

 

[Metar]

Why would you presume life would be dictated by earthly chemical and physiological rules? What about communication? How do we know all species communicate with the same waves as we do? That seems like a pretty bold assumption.

But it's pretty reasonable to assume they emit some sort of wave-based radiation, seeing as those are still the same laws of physics - and throwing stones isn't much of a communication, and light, radio, microwave, and radioactive waves are the same.

On top of that - nowhere in the areas actually looked at so far, were stars found that actually suit life of any form. Creatures don't tend to start existing on 400c hot rocks, nor sub-zero liquid lakes.

 

[Joey D]

I agree with your point that yes - there's a solid chance for more life somewhere in the uncharted universe.

But I don't agree about contact. First, why would they contact antique undeveloped civilizations, while keeping hidden from modern computer-equipped ones? And second, how would they hide so perfectly? An inhabited planet should contain some evidence, even if they aren't carbon-based like we are.

Ancient civilisation was not undeveloped by any means. That's a rather misinformed thing to say, just because they did not have the computer, internal combustion engine or mobile phones they were still quite advanced. Do you think modern man could build Stone Henge by hand?

Maybe the just made one trip to earth or were just "passing by", I honestly do not know, I wasn't alive back then. As I've said this is theory and speculation, nothing more.

We don't know about other planets because we can't see them or go to them. Think about this, humankind does an archaeological excavation on Mars and finds remains of all sorts of things, building, "people", "animals", etc. The field isn't advanced enough for us to really know or explore.

But it's pretty reasonable to assume they emit some sort of wave-based radiation, seeing as those are still the same laws of physics - and throwing stones isn't much of a communication, and light, radio, microwave, and radioactive waves are the same.

You can not assume this. Maybe they emit a different sort of radiation we can not detect, you don't know. Also they could have many different forms of communication.

On top of that - nowhere in the areas actually looked at so far, were stars found that actually suit life of any form. Creatures don't tend to start existing on 400c hot rocks, nor sub-zero liquid lakes.

We haven't even looked at a ridiculously small fraction of the stars and planets yet. Just because we haven't seen something doesn't mean there isn't anything out there or we won't find it. Also look at the creatures that live in the vents in the ocean.

 

[Famine]

On top of that - nowhere in the areas actually looked at so far, were stars found that actually suit life of any form. Creatures don't tend to start existing on 400c hot rocks, nor sub-zero liquid lakes.

Archaebacteria ("extremophiles") will quite happily live in those conditions.

On a multicellular levels, tardigrades can withstand zero water, temperature and pressure indefinitely. And that's just life on Earth.


Most stars can support life forms as we know them - it depends on the size of the star and the distance of the relevant planet from it:

Pulsars and certain other exotics are exempt as they either emit masses of radiation which even extremophiles can't withstand (X-rays, gamma rays, Hawking radiation), have massive gravitational forces or they emit little-to-no radiation and cannot provide enough energy to their system.


Gliese 581c is an Earthlike planet, roughly the same size and composition as Earth, with theoretical liquid water orbiting within a main sequence star's Habitable Zone. So, even if you limit "life of any form" to just "Earthlike multicellular life", we have found a planet which will support life - ignoring the fact that most stars will provide a suitable background, depending on a planet's position relative to it.

 

[Grand Prix]

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/siliconlife.html

"One is startled towards fantastic imaginings by such a suggestion: visions of silicon-aluminium organisms – why not silicon-aluminium men at once? – wandering through an atmosphere of gaseous sulphur, let us say, by the shores of a sea of liquid iron some thousand degrees or so above the temperature of a blast furnace."

Amazing concept.

 

[Metar]

So there is a chance for life. Interesting...


Still doesn't mean we were ever contacted by them. Which was my original point, which I started to over-develop. :\

 

[Barracuda]

My friend found and downloaded a 689MB picture file that was taken by NASA. He tried to open the file and it took his computer hours just to get a tiny part of the original non-zoomed picture opened. When he tried to move it, it did the same thing, so he ended up just exiting out of it.

I Can't wait to get a hold of it on monday