Deep Thoughts

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
Sir Arthur Eddington English astronomer (1882 - 1944)


This is one of my favorite pictures. Its the Hubble Deep Field. Its a picture that was taken over 10 days in December 1995. The picture was taken of a small area in the Big Dipper. The area the photo covers is roughly equal to the size of a dime at 75 feet. What fascinates me so much about this picture is that every object you see in the picture is not a star, its a galaxy. There are approximately 1,500 galaxy's in this photo. It Boggles my mind to think of all that "Stuff" out there in such a small area of the vast sky. If you click on the picture it will take you to the NASA Astronomy Picture Of The Day. It is one of my favorite sites.

My mind has been cluttered the last few weeks. I have tried to think ponder and sort out the things of everyday life, but no such luck. Just to many things coming at me at once. Like a swarm of angry insects coming at you. No time to focus on one thing, everything is coming at you so fast you can't focus or concentrate. No time for deep thoughts, only action and re-action.

I am hoping this will help to clear my mind. This picture really captures my mind. It makes me feel insignificant, yet still inspires me to Dream and Reach.

Even trying to imagine how big the Earth is becomes a monumental task for me. Then try to imagine the proportions of our Sun, our solar system and our galaxy, the Milky Way. Incomprehensible. Now this will really blow your mind, our galaxy contains between 200 billion to 400 billion stars. Some of them have planets. Those 1,500 galaxies in the picture above are in a very small area of the sky. I can't even begin to imagine how many other galaxies there are, or how many starts there are in them.

As I look at the picture I wonder "What's out there?" ET? Klingons? Wookies? Cylons? Space Balls? God? Nothing? I'm not trying to go X-Files on anyone here. Its been less than 37 years since Neil Armstrong took his "giant leap for mankind". What will our generation get to witness or the generations after us. I have seen the space shuttle explode twice, both the Berlin Wall and the World Trade Center come down and I'm still only 32. Now this isn't a serious quote, but its one that makes me think. Its from the movie Men In Black "1500 years ago, everybody "knew" that the earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody "knew" that the earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you "knew" that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll "know" tomorrow. "

Ok, now that I have my mind back on its more normal wave length, I can get back to my Deep Thoughts! Now if I could only figure out how "42" fits into all of this!