Meanwhile, Out There –
So beautiful. So strange.
By Victoria Gill
Science reporter, BBC NewsNasa’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has captured its deepest view of the Universe, producing images of galaxies that have never been seen before.
The pictures were acquired by the HST’s new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
This highly sensitive camera can see starlight from far-off objects - light that has been “stretched” by the expanding Universe.
Scientists who have analysed the new images say the galaxies they reveal could be the most distant yet observed.
The article talks about the new Webb Telescope, due to be launched in 2014.
Dr Bunker described the JWST as the “next quantum leap in telescope technology”.
I’m re-reading Footfall, by Niven and Pournelle. Lots of good reasons to keep scanning the sky.
Because They might be coming.
It might be nice if they came.
Comment on December 8, 2009 @ 5:32 pm
Pictures like this are the reason the word ‘awesome’ was coined… inspiring AWE (not to describe a particularly tasty order of fries ;-})!
To actually see more than 13 billion years into the past! All I can do emphasize the type and add exclamation points… Language fails… but wow.
Edwin Hubble would have fainted dead away to see this!
Comment on December 8, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
Change the view on your browser to 400%, and you really start to get an idea that, ahem, there’s aliens everywhere.
Imagine meeting a humanoid from a distant world who looks and acts exactly like a Vulcan.
I mean, really, isn’t that a basic quantum truth — that the universe is so large (not even to mention the multiverse), that everything that can be imagined exists in some fashion somewhere? Am I oversimplifying? Never. Not a whit.
However, the idea implies Romulans. Satan. PeeWee Herman As A God. Me as a female. A shemale. A goat. A killer. A happy lad. A happy pig in a medieval village.
All right. I’m going to stop right there.
A Swedish Max. A Strongly Atheistic Senrab. A Cruel Cat-Eyes. Sky Harbor The Six-Eyed Manta Ray In The Deep Orange Sea.
Or not.
Comment on December 8, 2009 @ 6:57 pm
Just thought I cruise by in my super-streamlined Manta aspect to say Hi!
Comment on December 8, 2009 @ 7:50 pm
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!
DON’T DO THAT!!
I can’t take this quantum shit.
Comment on December 8, 2009 @ 7:53 pm
I think I can see my house!
Comment on December 8, 2009 @ 8:47 pm
Like they said in “Contact”:
“Do you think there are ‘others’ out there?”
“I don’t know… but if not it sure would be an awful waste of space!”
Comment on December 8, 2009 @ 9:02 pm