And speaking of wonder, and mystery…

Hubble Deep Field Telescope Image

This picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope’s powerful deep-field telescope instrument. It shows a patch of sky about one millimeter square.

With the exception of the bright white object with diffraction lines radiating from it to the lower left of center (which is a star here in our own Milky Way galaxy), every single thing you see here is a galaxy. An entire galaxy, each with tens of millions or billions of stars.

This is not a remarkable section of sky. It looks like this no matter where you point the Deep Field Telescope.

Every one of the things in this picture. Every dot, every fleck of light. An entire galaxy.

So much for the notion that there is no wonder in science.

16 thoughts on “And speaking of wonder, and mystery…

  1. baaah?

    maybe i’m reading you wrong and shall be appropriately sheepish upon correction…

    i see distinct wonder in this world; i’m constantly amazed at what we discover and uncover through science, but i’m also an unabashed pagan who encourages connecting to divinity in a thousand heathen ways. i don’t understand how science limits spirituality? i think it enhances it.

  2. baaah?

    maybe i’m reading you wrong and shall be appropriately sheepish upon correction…

    i see distinct wonder in this world; i’m constantly amazed at what we discover and uncover through science, but i’m also an unabashed pagan who encourages connecting to divinity in a thousand heathen ways. i don’t understand how science limits spirituality? i think it enhances it.

  3. I once had the thought, and I think I may have read this somewhere also, that each galaxy in our universe could be construed to be akin to the subatomic particles that make up all matter in our universe. Thus, each atom in our bodies could well be made up of umpteen billions of tiny galaxies as well, and each galaxy in our universe could be a particle in a vastly larger atom of matter in another. This does tend to make one think, regardless whether it is true or not. Thanks for posting that pic!

  4. I once had the thought, and I think I may have read this somewhere also, that each galaxy in our universe could be construed to be akin to the subatomic particles that make up all matter in our universe. Thus, each atom in our bodies could well be made up of umpteen billions of tiny galaxies as well, and each galaxy in our universe could be a particle in a vastly larger atom of matter in another. This does tend to make one think, regardless whether it is true or not. Thanks for posting that pic!

  5. I’ve seen the pic before (it was on APotD a while back) and I’m still in awe of it. Thanks for the reminder!

    One question, though. This is the second time you’ve made reference to “one millimeter of sky”, and I’m unable to translate that into something I can grasp. 1 mm at what range? As far as I know (and I could be mistaken), millimeter is not used as a measurement of arc. Am I missing something or just being overly precise?

    • “One square millimeter of sky” in this case means the amount of sky you’d see if you held a card with a hole one millimeter square infront of you–at least that’s the way I interpret the press release.

      NASA released a couple of press releases with this image, one of which says “one square millimeter of field” and the other of which says “a speck of the sky only about the width of a dime located 75 feet away.” Neither one describes the field in terms of degrees of arc, and I haven’t been able to find a description of this image which does.

    • Hey! I have an answer for you, courtesy of math sex goddess Shelly.

      The key is in “a speck of the sky only about the width of a dime located 75 feet away.” A dime is 17mm in diameter; a dime located 75 feet away covers, with a relatively trivial (for her) calculation of theta=2(tan^-1((.017m/2)/22.86m)), 0.04261 degrees of arc.

      Geek chicks are HAWT!

      *epilogue* Goddamn Netscape is posting multiple copies of my replies again. If you get this in your inbox a bunch of times, that’s why.

  6. I’ve seen the pic before (it was on APotD a while back) and I’m still in awe of it. Thanks for the reminder!

    One question, though. This is the second time you’ve made reference to “one millimeter of sky”, and I’m unable to translate that into something I can grasp. 1 mm at what range? As far as I know (and I could be mistaken), millimeter is not used as a measurement of arc. Am I missing something or just being overly precise?

  7. “One square millimeter of sky” in this case means the amount of sky you’d see if you held a card with a hole one millimeter square infront of you–at least that’s the way I interpret the press release.

    NASA released a couple of press releases with this image, one of which says “one square millimeter of field” and the other of which says “a speck of the sky only about the width of a dime located 75 feet away.” Neither one describes the field in terms of degrees of arc, and I haven’t been able to find a description of this image which does.

  8. Hey! I have an answer for you, courtesy of math sex goddess Shelly.

    The key is in “a speck of the sky only about the width of a dime located 75 feet away.” A dime is 17mm in diameter; a dime located 75 feet away covers, with a relatively trivial (for her) calculation of theta=2(tan^-1((.017m/2)/22.86m)), 0.04261 degrees of arc.

    Geek chicks are HAWT!

    *epilogue* Goddamn Netscape is posting multiple copies of my replies again. If you get this in your inbox a bunch of times, that’s why.

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