It’s been a rough start to 2015, so I thought I’d step back and look at a bigger picture.
NASA released an image of a section of one of our nearest neighbors, galactically-speaking: the Andromeda galaxy, also known as M31.
The image itself contains 1.5 billion pixels and represents the largest image ever released by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The section of the galaxy shown contains over 100 million stars and would take 40,000 years to traverse at the speed of light.
A section of the Andromeda galaxy.
Click here to explore the image using the NASA zoom tool.
Source: NASA
Something to remind me on the one hand, that we are part of something far more vast than the human squabbles that take place on the surface of our planet, and on the other hand, that among all these countless celestial bodies, this little planet is the only one we’ve got.
If you’ve got the time, set your screen to full-view and spend a few short minutes on this lovely fly-through video, put together by YouTube user daveachuck.
Awesome! But my screen is clearly too small!
Reblogged this on Rhymes with Linnaeus and commented:
One of my favourite blogs, champagnewhiskey has one again helped my adjust my perspective. This post features a video of a flight through the Andromeda Galaxy which, I’m reminded, would actually take 40,000 years to accomplish at the speed of light. To up the humbling factor, I suggest you watch the video, then walk outside and stand on your front lawn. Look up at the sky while remembering that there are more organisms in a spoon of dirt than there are people on the planet. Makes you realize where you stand which is clearly not at the centre of everything.
Thanks so much for your kind and thoughtful comments! I like the spoonful of dirt analogy, too – now I have to go find a cool video that flies through a lively bit of soil…
LOL! If you find one, I’ll be first in line to watch it and reblog it!