What do you see...

[emc]

Home from Above

What do you see in this APOD? There is a goodly amount of response to the Earth geographic challenge in the discussion thread but I thought it might be interesting to discuss other aspects of the image. What do you see... beyond the pale perhaps... beyond the image... embedded thoughts anyone Personally, I think this may be the best APOD yet.

Here are some posts from the image discussion along this line...

It's a fantastic image. It speaks of achievements that humanity only a hundred years ago could only dream of - humans actually orbiting the Earth, looking down on this amazing planet from a height of about 350 kilometers.

But at the same time, this image speaks of how closely bound we humans are to the Earth. Yes, we have travelled 350 kilometers away from the surface of the Earth, and we have travelled even farther - humans have, after all, walked on the Moon. But the distance to the Moon, while more than a thousand times greater than the distance to the International Space Station, is still only about 450,000 kilometers. In the universe, where most distances have to be measured in lightyears or better yet, in kiloparsecs or megaparsecs, 450,000 kilometers is nothing.

I once saw a black and white movie that may have been from the early forties. Here some brave humans were struggling heroically to make their spaceship overcome the Earth's gravity. But once they had climbed out of the Earth's gravity well, the universe was literally theirs for the taking. They could go anywhere, to Mars, to Saturn, to Sirius, because they were no longer bound by the Earth's gravity.

But that is not how it works. We are so incredibly bound to the Earth, this little blue speck in the universe that sustains us, and that hosts all the life that we know of.

Ann

There is a wonderful poem, Blue, by Stuart Atkinson inspired by today's APOD image posted on Universe Today.

Stunning Image, Heartfelt Poetry Could Become Icons of Space Age

[rstevenson]

It's both an inspiring and a humbling image. I see a human being looking down from a habitat in space at the only place we know of in the universe where beings exist capable of building such a habitat. (Of course I believe there are other such worlds and beings, many of them, but we don't know.) I see Dr. Dyson being there in that habitat as the culmination of the dreams of millions of her fellow human beings, of tens of millions of person/hours of effort, of sacrifice and triumph. And I see it as the first stepping stone to the stars, if we dare to continue on that path.

Rob

[Puddock]

I loved this image too. Reminded me of Jodie Foster in Contact somehow. Inspirational picture!

[Beyond]

I see that it's a 'very' l-o-n-g way to Tipperary

[neufer]

I loved this image too. Reminded me of Jodie Foster in Contact somehow. Inspirational picture!

tRAcY cAldWELL dYsOn
ELLY AROWAY

• ..................................................................
  Palmer Joss: What are you studying up there?
  
  Ellie Arroway: Oh, the usual. Nebulae, quasars, pulsars, stuff like that. What are you writing?
  
  Palmer Joss: The usual. Nouns, adverbs, adjective here and there.
  ..................................................................
  [Witnessing a celestial light show up close]
  
  Ellie Arroway: Some celestial event. No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry!
  They should've sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea.