"For as long as we've been human, we've turned our gaze skyward and marveled at all that there is to view beyond planet Earth. Even the recognition that Earth itself is merely one of many planets orbiting the Sun is profound, where the stars glittering up in the canopy of the night sky are just very distant analogues of our own Sun: with many of them likely having their own planets,"
"The images we've taken of the Universe - originally merely in the forms of sketches, but later, with the advent of photography, by direct imaging - have quite profoundly shifted how we make sense of ourselves, and our very existence. At every stage, we've learned that the Universe is: grander and vaster than we imagined, within reach of human understanding,"
For as long as humans have looked skyward they have marveled at the cosmos beyond Earth. Recognition that Earth is one of many planets and that stars are distant suns implies many stars likely host planets, some possibly bearing life. Astronomical images from sketches to photography have altered human self-understanding more than raw data alone. Those images revealed a Universe grander and vaster than imagined, accessible to human understanding, where Earth and Sun are simultaneously special to human life and cosmically unremarkable, and where the cosmos is neither designed for nor centered on humanity. Historical observations, such as Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons, undermined geocentric models.
Read at Big Think
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]