Sunday, January 4, 2015

Tonight's sky with Stellarium...



It's overcast and raining here tonight, so this is my only look at the full moon...



If we were on Jupiter, looking at the Sun and four other planets...


And an enlarged view of Mars and its moons, as if seen from Jupiter.

I like this program, and I enjoy "zooming around the sky" with it, but while I'm doing this, I'm often conscious of how dark space is, and how vast the distances, and how barren and lifeless it is, and I can't help wondering why anyone would want to leave a planet like ours, and confine themselves in a cramped flying "tin can" for days or weeks or months, without most of the usual creature comforts we enjoy here, just to get to somewhere that isn't as good, or might even prove to be lethal. 

To me, this just doesn't make any sense, especially when we've got technology and robots that can do it safer and cheaper. I can't help thinking that all this stuff "out there" is separated by such vast distances for a very good reason. I don't believe that's just coincidence, or some random accident. It's all too skillfully arranged for that... and we should maybe be asking ourselves "why?". Perhaps, so that we can't mess it up.

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