So, you think mankind is special? A slideshow to humble the proud.

[Sahkuhnder]

From 10 million light years down to quarks. Kinda cool.

Slideshow.


And the Hubble telescope has seen objects 12 billion light years away, including galaxies too numerous to count.

This very tiny sliver of space yields about 10,000 galaxies.



Link to various size versions.


The human race suddenly doesn't seem so impressive or special anymore.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

[16th Century Voice] Pure heresy! The Earth is firmly in the centre of the Universe with all other objects in orbit of it. The British Empire being the actual centre of the Earth what what [/16th Century Voice]

Seriously though Sahkuhnder good thread

Come on Pedants, thrill me with your knowledge of history

 

[Bast]

From 10 million light years down to quarks. Kinda cool.

Slideshow.


And the Hubble telescope has seen objects 12 billion light years away, including galaxies too numerous to count.

This very tiny sliver of space yields about 10,000 galaxies.

View attachment 142064

Link to various size versions.


The human race suddenly doesn't seem so impressive or special anymore.

Are you serious? Humans seem more special than ever to me. The universe is incredible but there is only one human race like one Earth. We're special. The trick is how to make ourselves MORE special.

 

[El_Machinae]

That first one, 10,000 galaxies (of roughly 100,000,000 stars each). 10,000 galaxies is pretty impressive. The fact that 'blew my mind' was realising it was a mere portion of the sky ... the amount of sky that would be blocked by a grain of sand held at arm's length

 

[Ingvina Freyr]

I love the slideshow. It brings back the old inner/outer space-question; What if we're only particles in a cell of a giant leaf? And the other big question; What is the likeliness that in a universe this big, Earth is the only planet with life on it?

 

[Winner]

Don't think about it more often, it tends to make you indifferent to "human issues". You know, why should it matter that -random problem-, when it won't have the slightest impact beyond this planet?

 

[El_Machinae]

Don't think about it more often, it tends to make you indifferent to "human issues". You know, why should it matter that -random problem-, when it won't have the slightest impact beyond this planet?

Well, because if we don't deal with these 'little problems', there's less likelihood that we'll claim our birthright out there!

A lot of things have to go right, if we want Humanity to reach the stars. And there seem to be quite a few people who are willing to foil that, proactively taking steps that reduce our chances.

A vibrant, progressive, and caring human race is much more likely to 'get out'

 

[aneeshm]

This slideshow makes me even more convinced that mankind is special . We are the only planet we know to have intelligent life , in that gigantic vastness of space which was shown in that slideshow . That makes us all the more precious , as the seeds of all galactic and intergalactic life to come . Just imagine - comparatively insignificant creatures from an utterly insignificant rock around a middling star in one rim of a minor galaxy somewhere in a vast universe conquering , bit by inevitable bit , the entire habitable universe - now that's something to aim for .

 

[warpus]

Are you serious? Humans seem more special than ever to me. The universe is incredible but there is only one human race like one Earth. We're special. The trick is how to make ourselves MORE special.

Didn't you see all the galaxies and all the stars? How can we be the only one?

This slideshow makes me even more convinced that mankind is special . We are the only planet we know to have intelligent life , in that gigantic vastness of space which was shown in that slideshow .

Let's see.. How many of those solar systems have we explored so far? What's that? ONE??

Your conclusion that we're the only intelligent species is pure speculation, and not a very good educated guess.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Is this like the "powers of 10" movie? becuase I loved that one.

Anyways, this just confirms what i already felt about the significance of humans. The stars may be ginormous, but can they feel love or pain?

 

[warpus]

Is this like the "pwers of 10" movie? becuase I loved that one.

Anyways, this just confirms what i already felt about the significance of humans. The stars may be ginormous, but can they feel love or pain?

The point is that the Universe was obviously not created for us, since we're insignificant in size compared to the rest of the cosmos.

We are not the centre of attention. Far from it.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

It all depends on perspective, I guess. I mean, given that we are in some way dependent on supernovae and the like to even have anything heavier than iron, someone could still argue that it is all for us. I don't think that, but I still think it could be argued.

 

[Bast]

Didn't you see all the galaxies and all the stars? How can we be the only one?

Just because there's extraterrestrial life (which I believe exists), it doesn't mean we're not special!!

 

[El_Machinae]

We should be humbled at our pathetic level of influence.

Our signals have reached what? 1500 stars? Sounds like a lot - but only in some perspectives

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Its completely natural for humans to believe that the human race is amazingly special, unique and wondrous. But are we? Of course not. We're just one animal species on one infinitely tiny little dot, lost in an incomprehensibly immense cosmos. To many people thats a frightening idea. I find it comforting.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

I dislike that they just invented colors for the sub atomic particles. They don't have color.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Well, how else can we see/distinguish them? Humans weren't designed to be able to know about subatomic particles, much less see them.

 

[warpus]

It all depends on perspective, I guess. I mean, given that we are in some way dependent on supernovae and the like to even have anything heavier than iron, someone could still argue that it is all for us. I don't think that, but I still think it could be argued.

You could argue that, but IMO that's not a very sensible position, considering how much other life there must be out there and the vast distances involved. If it was put here for us, why is it that we're only free to explore 0.000000000000000000000000000000001% of the whole Universe? Even if that?

Just because there's extraterrestrial life (which I believe exists), it doesn't mean we're not special!!

I would say that all the life in the Universe is 'special' in a way, as it's evolved from nothing to something. However, when most people say that humanity is special, they mean that we're at the centre of the Universe, that it was all put here for us, that existence revolves around us, etc.

Its completely natural for humans to believe that the human race is amazingly special, unique and wondrous. But are we? Of course not. We're just one animal species on one infinitely tiny little dot, lost in an incomprehensibly immense cosmos. To many people thats a frightening idea. I find it comforting.

I find that idea.. eye opening.. and humbling.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Well, even if the universe doesn't think we are anything special, we still have something going for us. I mean, the Andromeda Galaxy isn't even asking this question.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

Well, how else can we see/distinguish them? Humans weren't designed to be able to know about subatomic particles, much less see them.

They are to small for the waves of the photons to bounce of them. So inpractice they have no color.