Take a look at this nifty presentation, The Scale of the Universe, that takes us from the infinitesimal (the Planck length -- 0.00000000000000000000000000000000001 m -- we are told that any length shorter than that makes "no physical sense" -- sure...)
Simon Hakansson's rendition of quantum foam somewhere on the level of the Planck length.to the unimaginably vast (the estimated size of the Universe -- 93,000,000,000 light years -- yeah, wrap your mind around that!)
Photo of the Andromeda Galaxy by Martin Mika taken in our backyard.
and everything in-between:
The Vitruvian Man by Da Vinci, ca. 1487.
Enjoy and marvel.
Crossposted from The Middle of Nowhere.
"Copernicus, young man, when are you going to come to terms with the fact that the world does not revolve around you."
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, Elizabeth. Quantum Foam is reminiscent of a fractal construct.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post, Elizabeth.
ReplyDelete"Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there." --Richard Feynman
BTW, congratulations to young Martin on that fabulous Andromeda photo.
ReplyDeleteIt boggles the mind and gives me Andromeda eyestrain.... and does put me in a Sagan frame of mind.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a little kid I'd see an airplane in the sky at night and think to myself: on that airplane are hundreds of people I will never know, and they all have families and friends and neighbors and co-workers whom I also will not know, and they have lives and loves and histories and wishes and dreams and live in worlds of their own that I do not know.
ReplyDeleteAnd it made me feel very, very small.
It didn't help that I lived in the hills above Los Angeles and was looking at planes landing at LAX, one bright light after another lining up in the night sky.
I was a weird child.
Octo, the Copernicus anecdote explains everything! LOL!
ReplyDeleteTomCat, nobody has a clue as to what the foam looks like or even if it really exists, so the artists can use their imagination at will. There are some renderings that look even more fractal-like, and others not at all.
ReplyDeleteFun stuff, IMO.
Thank you, Tom Cat, Shaw and Octo! Yes, I am pround of my own astrophysicist/astrophotographer. He was born to do that. Started talking astronomy at 2 years of age and never stopped... :)
ReplyDeleteDmarks, Andromeda eyestrain, LOL! A good one.
ReplyDeleteA Sagan frame of mind is not a bad one to be in, either.
SoBe, what a touching reminiscence. You were NOT a weird child at all. Sensitive, imaginative and empathetic -- how is this weird?
ReplyDeleteThere were more of us like you, thinking, feeling and imagining in similar ways.
(BTW, there is a name for it in "my" circles: it's called gifted. :)
LOL. Gifted I ain't, but thanks for the virtual hug! These images reminded me of that ...
ReplyDeleteThe universe it is my home
ReplyDeleteI brush my teeth with quantum foam
Don't waste your time by asking why
Just go out and buy and buy
(forgive me, I just got back from Disney World)