Food for thoughts.

[vickster]

Don't humans actually have enough to worry about and deal with on this planet without worrying about what might or might not be out there a squillion (est.) light years away?

 

[lazybloke]

Don't humans actually have enough to worry about and deal with on this planet without worrying about what might or might not be out there a squillion (est.) light years away?

I'd contribute to send Elon Musk to Mars

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Don't humans actually have enough to worry about and deal with on this planet without worrying about what might or might not be out there a squillion (est.) light years away?

Humans have always been able to think beyond the here and now. It's arguably one of the most amazing things about us, and one of the key things that distinguishes us from other animals.

To put it another way, how could one ever look up at the night sky and not be filled with wonder at the spectacle and curiosity as to what made it?

​

The star cluster NGC 602 lies on the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, about 200,000 light-years from Earth. The stars in NGC 602 have fewer heavier elements compared to the Sun and most of the rest of the galaxy. Instead, the conditions within NGC 602 mimic those for stars found billions of years ago when the universe was much younger.

This new image combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with a previously released image from the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope. The dark ring-like outline of the wreath seen in Webb data (represented as orange, yellow, green, and blue) is made up of dense clouds of filled dust.

Meanwhile, X-rays from Chandra (red) show young, massive stars that are illuminating the wreath, sending high-energy light into interstellar space. These X-rays are powered by winds flowing from the young, massive stars that are sprinkled throughout the cluster. The extended cloud in the Chandra data likely comes from the overlapping X-ray glow of thousands of young, low-mass stars in the cluster.

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/#Latest-Images

 

[vickster]

Personally, I have little to no interest in astronomy and avoid sci-fi if I can!
I'm also a Christian so I don't need to wonder (no debate required)

 

[Marchrider]

Personally, I have little to no interest in astronomy and avoid sci-fi if I can!
I'm also a Christian so I don't need to wonder (no debate required)

were you not impressed with Venus and the Sickle moon a few nights back ?

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Personally, I have little to no interest in astronomy and avoid sci-fi if I can!
I'm also a Christian so I don't need to wonder (no debate required)

The point wasn't just about astronomy; the same thing applies to the whole of creation (to use a Christian term).

I don't see why being Christian makes it any less wonderful, indeed quite the opposite; many of the great thinkers and natural scientists were motivated exactly by the wonder of creation to explore and explain it, from Newton onwards.

Newton saw a monotheistic God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Isaac_Newton

 

[vickster]

The point wasn't just about astronomy; the same thing applies to the whole of creation (to use a Christian term).

I don't see why being Christian makes it any less wonderful, indeed quite the opposite; many of the great thinkers and natural scientists were motivated exactly by the wonder of creation to explore and explain it, from Newton onwards.

Newton saw a monotheistic God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Isaac_Newton

Space and the like is just really not something I have any interest in, never have, likely never will, ditto physics in general Each to their own

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Space and the like is just really not something I have any interest in, never have, likely never will, ditto physics in general Each to their own

Well, you gave me an excuse to post an awesome (meant literally) pic from the James Webb, so there's that.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Don't humans actually have enough to worry about and deal with on this planet without worrying about what might or might not be out there a squillion (est.) light years away?

We would be a duller and more intellectually impoverished species if we stopped expanding our sphere of knowledge.

Exploring the cosmos has been an innate feature of the human psyche ever since our very distant ancestors first looked up to the sky and tried to rationalise what they saw. Exploring our environment (including on the macro-scale) is part of what makes us human.

The day we stop exploring as a species, would signal the beginning of the end, imo.

 

[lazybloke]

We would be a duller and more intellectually impoverished species if we stopped expanding our sphere of knowledge.

Fine, but "we" should have stopped before dreaming up Aqua's "Barbie Girl"

 

[stephec]

Fine, but "we" should have stopped before dreaming up Aqua's "Barbie Girl"

Why stop before you reach the pinnacle?

 

[teeonethousand]

Why stop before you reach the pinnacle?

I used to ride a Pinnacle ...I saw it as an Interim step 🤣

 

[vickster]

We would be a duller and more intellectually impoverished species if we stopped expanding our sphere of knowledge.

Exploring the cosmos has been an innate feature of the human psyche ever since our very distant ancestors first looked up to the sky and tried to rationalise what they saw. Exploring our environment (including on the macro-scale) is part of what makes us human.

The day we stop exploring as a species, would signal the beginning of the end, imo.

Good for everyone else. I just have zero interest In such things, nature on earth and in the close sky yes, in space no.
I’ll be long gone before the species wipes itself and if a giant meteor gets the planet in the next 30 years or so, me having been interested would have made no difference to me or anyone else.

I’ll happily leave you all to stare upwards 👍🏻

 

[Hover Fly]

The trouble with astronomy is that everything is so far away, it’s like being at a firework display where on overzealous safety bod has put up barriers 2km away

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Just finished "White Holes" by Carlo Rovelli having bought it myself for Christmas.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/white-holes/carlo-rovelli/simon-carnell/9781802062144

Obviously I understood it all

Well worth a read, interesting thought experiments.