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Humbled by Hubble

By Pat Racimora on September 15, 2009 at 9:01 AM in Current Affairs

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The Hubble Telescope has been refurbished, and it takes us to places we have never been before. Photos of its new capabilities were released last week, and they are beyond stunning.

What does this mean, and who are we?

Here’s the technical story:

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, ready to uncover new worlds, peer ever deeper into space, and even map the invisible backbone of the universe. The first snapshots from the refurbished Hubble showcase the 19-year-old telescope’s new vision. Topping the list of exciting new views are colorful multi-wavelength pictures of far-flung galaxies, a densely packed star cluster, an eerie “pillar of creation,” and a “butterfly” [shown above] nebula.

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With its new imaging camera, Hubble can view galaxies, star clusters, and other objects across a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light. A new spectrograph slices across billions of light-years to map the filamentary structure of the universe and trace the distribution of elements that are fundamental to life… NASA astronauts installed the new instruments during the space shuttle servicing mission in May 2009.

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Wow! Talk about shock and awe! Here we are, an infinitesimal speck hoping not to self-destruct in the midst of this vastness, of…of…what? Is this God’s work, and if it is, does he care about us? Or are we maybe some alien kid’s science experiment? Or was it all just one Big Bang? I suppose what we can agree on is that there is so much we do not know, which is both exhilarating and profoundly humbling.

(For more AWE-some Hubble images, see here.)

  • HARP

    WOW….And just think….Obama controls all of that!!

    • Obamastolemycounty

      LOL!

    • tzada

      ;) lol ….. luv ya Harp, you add so much to NQ and I am glad you are on our side.

      • http://noquarter foxyladi14

        AMEN…

    • http://me414.wordpress.com/ Mary Ellen (Nunly)

      Funniest comment I’ve seen all week! LOL!!!

    • http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

      Dangit, HARP – I’m sick, and laughing makes my ribs hurt – stop it! :-D

      Pat – fantastic article. These photos are just breath-taking. Truly amazing. And thanks for the reminder that we are but tiny specks in the scheme of things…Great post!

    • felizarte

      Pat, your art and Harp’s comment should go viral.

  • Linda Anselmi

    Great toon Pat!

    Those pictures are awesome.

  • TorchWood

    Harp,

    For a few minutes, let’s forget That One and just look up.

    • http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

      It is good for us to remember to “just look up,” TorchWood.

      Pat, you ask good questions: Is it the hand of the Divine? Is it just the way of the universe? Regardless of what answer appeals to each one, the reality is that it is awe-inspiring. Simply awesome…

      (Hey, TorchWood – are you a fan of the show? I love it, myself…)

      • kgirl1028

        I’m a fan. I started watching it because of Dr Who which I’ve loved since i was a little girl and the showed it on PBS. Did you see the COE miniseries it was awesome. Very dark but awesome

        • TorchWood

          Absolute RABID fan. Watched and recorded COE on my own DVR then BOUGHT it when it came out. Started reading the books too and trying to get find a few “volunteers” for a pilgramage to Cardiff next year.

  • pm317

    Fantastic!!

  • LisaB

    Gorgeous pics! Amazing stuff. Wonder if the local planetarium has a Hubble show??

  • Sassy

    Good work Pat!
    These magnificent visions, and the miracle of eyesight to enjoy them, tell me that we are cared about!

  • Solara 9

    I can freak myself out looking at the photos and realizing where I am in all of that. The TRUTH is out there.

    I hope there is a higher power and that it will allow for our redemption as a species.

  • Denise

    Wonderful!

  • Katmoon

    Gorgeous, thank you Pat.

  • tzada

    I have a Hubble picture as my wallpaper, on my pc. It really looks like a gigantic horse like head of some kind. Just looking out at the world. It has eyes and ears and a nose.

    Wonderful the wuniverse around us, and the mysteries that are still to discover here on earth. Who and what are we, will we survive as we are or become better? My hope is for better, and if it all ends, well then we will just spin off into that great galaxy….

  • oowawa

    Thank you, Pat, for making us all feel like meaningless insects.

    The human race has moved from ethnocentric views of the cosmos, in which it all circled around US, to views that recognize how itty bitty eensy weensy and insignificant our place in the universe really is. And so we as individuals, in order to grow up, must wake up to the notion that our egos are not the most important beings in the creation. It’s hard to shake that illusion–from the time we are born everything comes at us–perceptions, food, love, abuse. We seem so central, and there is this voice that keeps saying I-I-I . . .

    Love to read the latest theories of the cosmologists, with total cluelessness, of course. String theory, reconciling quantum theory with Einstein, dark matter, dark energy, and now, ta-dum, dark flow. Gawrsh. Can’t wait to see if the Large Hadron Collider will create a tiny black hole that will suck up the earth into something about the size of a pea . . .

    • Pat Racimora

      As always, love your comment oowawa!

  • kgirl1028

    I hate to say but i’ve seen these photos before. Infact I have alot of them as my wallpaper on my computer at work for months now. Oh well i’ve always have been a dweeb. Just last week I was trying to figure out how we could tap into that hydrocarbon lake on Titan. Then we could Nuke the Middle East and live happily ever after. Sigh…

    • Pat Racimora

      I know that some looked really familiar. They were taken this last May. BUT, the Website says they were just released last Wednesday I believe…

      Anyway, they are really cool whenever they were released!

  • kgirl1028

    I hate to say but i’ve seen these photos before. Infact I have alot of them as my wallpaper on my computer at work for months now. Oh well i’ve always have been a dweeb. Just last week I was trying to figure out how we could tap into that hydrocarbon lake on Titan. Then we could Nuke the Middle East and live happily ever after. Or how we could put Solar panals on Mercury since one side of it always faces the sun unlimited solar energy. Then we could nuke the middle east and live happily ever after. Sigh…

    • Docelder

      how we could tap into that hydrocarbon lake on Titan

      Therein lies a big hint. There are no plants on Titan and no dinosaurs on Titan. So, if the origins of hydrocarbons are biogenic only… how so? If hydrocarbons are produced by abiogenic means on Titan… then why not here as well? Then our petroleum reserves on Earth aren’t fixed and there is not a finite source for them either.

  • felizarte

    hope there is a higher power and that it will allow for our redemption as a species.

    countless galaxies in countless universes! These couldn’t possibly be accidental creations of a “BIG BANG”! The incredible intelligence of nature from vastness of all creation down to the minutest molecule is truly awesome, fantastic. Surely something has been ordered for humans, just like in molecules. How can anyone not believe in a Higher Power? God?

    Pat’s art really brings all of that home; Harps comment points out the absurdity of people’s sense of importance and ability to affect the grand scheme of things.

    Imagine all those places out there where souls could be beamed to, after life on this planet. I will always be a fan of shows like Star Trek, Babylon5, SG1.

  • helenk

    http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

    This is a place I visit when life gets over whelming and I need beauty for the soul.

    Thank you Pat for this post. Your drawings always are so right on the mark.

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

  • helenk

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1213580/Amazing-interactive-360-degree-panoramic-view-entire-night-sky.html

    I just found this while looking for the link in the daily mail about the ghost ships in the next post.

    I thought it would go along with your post

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

  • Rich

    Wonderful cartoon about an amazing human accomplishment! I say human accomplishment because I am speaking of creating the telescope and then being able to make changes in space to make it even better. It shows that just when we think we know what is possible or what is real, we find out we know hardly anything. That is where the hope is. It is people working together to make something happen.

    If we are looking at the past, then the past must continue to exist longer than just the moment of its happening. It exists long enough for us to see it now and much of it will still be there for years to come. If someone is looking at our earth now from a distant planet then they are probably looking at our past and not our present. If we look in their direction, will we be able to see our future?

    With what we know now, regardless of whether you believe there is a God or not, and I believe there is a God as a form of energy, to believe that in all we see we are the only intelligent creations to me makes no sense to me.

    Rich

    • Ferd Berfle

      If someone is looking at our earth now from a distant planet then they are probably looking at our past and not our present

      You are correct, in that if a sentient being on a planet 10 light-years from this solar system looked in our direction right now and saw the light of our star, that light that this being is seeing would have left the sun 10 years ago. After a fashion, they would always see our sun and solar system as it was 10 years before. It is the distance that is the key factor as the speed of light is a constant.

      • kgirl1028

        ACtually graveity has the ability to bend light and time has been theorized that once you enter a blackhole’s event horizen that not only is light and any other object that has the misfortune of passing through it sucked inside, time becomes distorted. Eistien observed stars bending light by observing stars behind Sol during a an eclips and noticed that there was a different in their normall location

        There are scientist who think that large bodies like Stars are the ones that set time for the area of space around them. Hmmm so that might mean around Sol a yellow dwarf light speed constant might be approximately 299,792 kilometres per second, but what around a massive blue giant like Sirus or a trinary system like the Centaris would light speed up around Centuri Proxima a red dwarf and slow down around Beta and Alpha which are more simular to our star in size and luminosity. Damn too bad human life span is so short. A probable life span of 122 tops years is just not enough time to figure this out.

        Oh well like i said i’m a dweeb. I have head swimming with information but not enough genius to use it.

    • kgirl1028

      An Infanite universe leaves means infinate possiblity.

  • kgirl1028
    • kgirl1028

      Umm where in the world do you think organic building blocks of life came from, the same place Titan’s came from, the sun. There’s not plants on venous either but it’s atmosphere is nearly all CO2 where did that come from since there are no plants there?

      • kgirl1028

        That should be Venus

  • Don X

    Amazing. The Hubble’s revelations give new meaning to the word, “awesome”.

  • jiminycricket

    Unfortunately, our president of 8 months in not at all enamored with the space program as it most likely does not poll as well politically as some of his other choices. The stunning Hubble photos make us aware of the immensity and beauty of a universe that far surpasses the arrogance of man. We are both humbled by it’s power and overjoyed in the discovery of “the company we keep” in it’s outer reaches.

  • http://www.zoombits.co.uk/computer-accessories/ dvd r

    every field has questions that are awaiting the power of Hubble”

    Screw that. I want a moon base!