Puting things in perspective.

[BaalChatzaf]

Pray do have a look at this:

this vid gives us a fairly good idea of just how important and significant we are in the cosmos.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Chris Grieb]

Very well done!

[syrakusos]

Only watched the first minute, but a couple of times. The Earth is turning the wrong way. Once you get away from Tibet and Earth, you can see that the Sun is "behind" the Earth. So, then, start again and the way the Earth is turning, sunlight would sweep from West to East.

That aside, as far as I can tell, we are the only entities to have created and viewed this map.

Edited December 19, 2009 by Michael E. Marotta

[Guyau]

Wonderful vista. Thanks, Bob.

$

Edited December 19, 2009 by Stephen Boydstun

[Jonathan]

Only watched the first minute, but a couple of times. The Earth is turning the wrong way. Once you get away from Tibet and Earth, you can see that the Sun is "behind" the Earth. So, then, start again and the way the Earth is turning, sunlight would sweep from West to East.

You've mistaken the viewer's movement for the Earth's movement. The Earth is not noticeably rotating. The simulated camera rotates around the Earth. Keep an eye on the background to confirm this.

J

Edited December 19, 2009 by Jonathan

[Dragonfly]

You've mistaken the viewer's movement for the Earth's movement. The Earth is not noticeably rotating. The simulated camera rotates around the Earth. Keep an eye on the background to confirm this.

Yup. You can also see the shadow of the Earth moving at the same rate, indicating that the apparent rotation is due to the changing viewpoint. Only when the shadow side of the Earth is almost complete in view, the sun becomes visible. The reason is obvious: we start with a sunny landscape to have a clear view of the features of the Earth, but when we move away the sun becomes the next focus of the picture. Therefore the "camera" has to change its position towards the shadow side of the Earth, that is the reason for the apparent rotation.

[anonrobt]

Pray do have a look at this:

this vid gives us a fairly good idea of just how important and significant we are in the cosmos.

Ba'al Chatzaf

And how great man is that we know this...

[klnielsen]

This vastness is wonderful for our importance because of the opportunities it gives us to explore it, understand it, and hopefully, ultimately harness and use it.

[Brant Gaede]

See this again.

--Brant

[BaalChatzaf]

Pray do have a look at this:

this vid gives us a fairly good idea of just how important and significant we are in the cosmos.

Ba'al Chatzaf

And how great man is that we know this...

We are pretty smart primates.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Brant Gaede]

Read "Rare Earth" to find out to find out how "extraordinarily rare" this planet is. It's not where you are in the universe, you see, it's if you are, for complex life may be just as rare as this planet. For instance, 85% of the stars are too small to have an earth-like planet. An earth-like planet would have to be closer to a smaller sun to get the required heat, but then that planet gets locked down with one side facing the sun and the other away, all the time, just like the moon. The moon is needed to reduce the extent of the planet tilt that makes the seasons, but the formation of the moon was god-awful lucky. No Jupiter--forget it. For billions of years Jupiter has functioned as a huge vacuum cleaner sucking up space debris. So instead of being clobbered with something massive and terribly destructive maybe every ten thousand years, think in terms of tens of millions. Jupiter, though, is not supposed to be that out far from the sun in a fairly circular orbit. Giant planets in elliptical orbits can throw Earth-like planets out of the solar system. Etc.

--Brant

tell me why anybody but a deranged fool would get aboard a starship to go to another star--we are already on a great spaceship with giant telescopes probing the universe--when if he could visit every star in the galaxy he'd be likely unlikely to find complex life--the only rational reason (so far) would be to escape a doomed planet