I feel so small...

[kpete]

The first of a set of unprecedented, super-deep views of the universe from an ambitious collaborative program called The Frontier Fields is being released today at the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.

The long-exposure image taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is the deepest-ever picture taken of a cluster of galaxies, and also contains images of some of the intrinsically faintest and youngest galaxies ever detected.

The target is the massive cluster Abell 2744, which contains several hundred galaxies as they looked 3.5 billion years ago. The immense gravity in this foreground cluster is being used as a "gravitational lens," which warps space to brighten and magnify images of far-more-distant background galaxies as they looked over 12 billion years ago, not long after the big bang.

"The Frontier Fields is an experiment; can we use Hubble's exquisite image quality and Einstein's theory of General Relativity to search for the first galaxies?" said Space Telescope Science Institute Director Matt Mountain. "With the other Great Observatories, we are undertaking an ambitious joint program to use galaxy clusters to explore the first billion years of the universe's history."

MORE:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2014/01/full/
via: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/long-long-ago.html

[niyad]

1. k and r

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. HEY! YOU! YEAH, YOU, ON THE LITTLE BLUE ONE!

I'm watching what you do with your naughty bits.



- God.

[TeeYiYi]

4. Heretic.

TYY

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. Yes, thanks.

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. I casn't think about the vastness of the universe for very long.

I find it totally overwhelming.

Kind of like thinking about the volcano under Yellowstone that could go off any time now and would probably wipe out most of the US.

[snooper2]

6. You don't have to feel small, JESUS DID THAT!

And jesus is in you too!

[Drew2510]

7. "Billions and billions." It boggles my mind. Always has. n/t

[MisterP]

8. I strangely don't--but I contrariwise REALLY feel how big all those galaxies are

the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_intraparietal_cortex handles time--I guess whatever equivalent cortical patch that handles space is really big in my skull?

[hfojvt]

9. not me

I'm Zaphod Beeblebrox, baby, and I know where my towel is.


Isaac Asimov wrote a short story called "The Devil and the Astrophysicist" or some such. The Devil made a deal with this astrophysicist, involving an exchange of favors. I don't remember what the guy had to do, but the devil was laughing because people always lose in these bargains, they ask for some trifle like $10 million or fame, but the astrophysicist demanded that the devil visit him right after death and then do a favor for him. Devil didn't think that was a big deal, but then when the moment came, the astrophysicist demanded a "grand tour of the universe" something that would take the Devil millions of years. And, of course, by the rules, the Devil HAD to fulfill his end of the bargain.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. We only think we're important because we tell ourselves we are.

[AngryAmish]

11. Maybe it is my ego but seeing things like this seems unfair

I'm stuck on this rock. I am not going anywhere. Yet the universe is so vast.