Long way home

[Angelfishsolo]

Sometimes, my favorite pictures from space are among the ones that look least interesting… until you understand what you’re seeing.

For example, this doesn’t look like much, does it?

Ah, but that picture shows so, so much. It shows everything!

That’s us. You, me, everyone. That fuzzy blob on the left? That’s Earth. The one on the right: the Moon.

In this one simple picture, you can see everywhere humans have ever been; hundreds of thousands of years spent on Earth, and a few brief days on the Moon. And this picture was taken from much farther than anyone has ever traveled.

This view of our home worlds was seen by Juno, a spacecraft launched on August 5. By August 26th, when it took this snapshot, it was already nearly 10 million kilometers (6 million miles) away. And yet this is merely a baby step compared to its total journey: it will take a long, sweeping path to Jupiter, traveling nearly 3 billion kilometers before arriving at its destination.

Take another look at that picture. See how close together they look? It took humans more than three days to bridge ...








Taken from here

 

[Cheddar George]

It's a long way to Jupiter and then it is still within our own galaxy. Similar to the photo above (which looks unimpressive at first glance) you can see the Andromeda galaxy with an ordinary pair of binoculars. It looks like a fuzzy poorly defined star, and then you think about how far away it is and what lies between that galaxy and ours ......... and eventally your brain explodes because it can't rationalise the smallness and overall insignificance of our planet.

 

[ASC1951]

It's a long way to Jupiter and then it is still within our own galaxy. Similar to the photo above (which looks unimpressive at first glance) you can see the Andromeda galaxy with an ordinary pair of binoculars. It looks like a fuzzy poorly defined star, and then you think about how far away it is and what lies between that galaxy and ours ......... and eventally your brain explodes because it can't rationalise the smallness and overall insignificance of our planet.

Quite. And still people think we are unique and our little piece of flotsam was hand-crafted in six days.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Quite. And still people think we are unique and our little piece of flotsam was hand-crafted in six days.

Indeed. The image is both humbling and awe inspiring.

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Great stuff. I love all things space.

 

[Speicher]

You might like to watch this, Angelfishsolo, if you have not already seen it.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U

 

[Globalti]

Quite. And still people think we are unique and our little piece of flotsam was hand-crafted in six days.

Eh? You trying to tell me the earth wasn't made in six days? My Nigerian friend (a very devout Catholic) told me the Manchester museum (full of fossils and stuff) was all fake because everybody knows the world was created about 5000 years ago in six days.

So what's this new theory then?

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Eh? You trying to tell me the earth wasn't made in six days? My Nigerian friend (a very devout Catholic) told me the Manchester museum (full of fossils and stuff) was all fake because everybody knows the world was created about 5000 years ago in six days.

So what's this new theory then?

I remember talking to Jehovah Witness and I asked him what they thought about fossils. I was told that god had faked them and put them their to test faith!

 

[coffeejo]

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Eh? You trying to tell me the earth wasn't made in six days? My Nigerian friend (a very devout Catholic) told me the Manchester museum (full of fossils and stuff) was all fake because everybody knows the world was created about 5000 years ago in six days.

So what's this new theory then?

Devout possibly. Ignorant of their church's actual teaching certainly.

 

[Mr Phoebus]

thought about fossils. I was told that god had faked them and put them their to test faith!

What a wag he/she is.

 

[MontyVeda]

I remember talking to Jehovah Witness and I asked him what they thought about fossils. I was told that god had faked them and put them their to test faith!

It drives to distraction the self enforced ignorance of some people... a friend of mine, a very intelligent bloke is cursed with being 'born again'.. so he dismisses most of physics and geology because it doesn't fit his point of view.

I keep trying to get through to him that 'created in 6 days' doesn't mean 6x24 hours, just the same as queen Elizabeth's day describes the period of her reign and not a single 24 hour day in her life. If I could get through to him that the earth was created in 6 periods of time which lasted many millions of years... and the 6,000 years is the period between adam & eve and the present day... I'd be more comfortable with his faith.

Creation and the big bang theory are very similar, yet they refuse to recognise the parallels between the two theories.

 

[MontyVeda]

...and AFS... the moon landings were faked... everybody knows that

 

[MontyVeda]

Scale looks wrong to me (moon too far away)...

... but I aint about to argue with NASA!

just done some adding up...

diameter of earth is just shy of 13,000 km

distance of the earth to moon is between 356,000 and 406,000 km

which means the distance from the earth to moon is between 27 and 31 earth diameters.

so if anything it looks a bit close


note to pedants... distances are approximate

 

[Fnaar]

Nice pic. As for religion etc, I just can't Adam and Eve it!