It's on!
Good news for fans of breathtaking photos that will boggle your mind if you’d only stop for a cottonpickin’ (or, in most people’s cases, a nosepickin’) minute and think about them.
After a few weeks of downtime, Hubble is back online!
Speaking of being back online, so am I. Since late last Wednesday I’ve been a bit consumed watching the Phillies win the World Series. Hence the lack of blogging.
Not that anyone noticed, what with a certain, incredibly important political event taking place tomorrow which apparently (if recent media reports are to be trusted) will determine if our country is headed for this:
Or this:
Now, it’s probably hard for some of you to understand how someone can get so caught up in a sports team, especially with the election-to-end-all-elections upon us. But as anyone from Philly will tell you, I just had some deep, internal wounds healed when the Phils hoisted that trophy. Twenty-five years of following Philly teams lose in heartbreaking fashion will do that to a Philly child, who became a Philly teenager, who is currently a Philly/NYC man-child who will one day (hopefully) become an adult.
See if you can pick me out from the crowd at the Championship Parade in Philly this past friday.
Now, back to Hubble. A couple days ago the telescope aimed its Wide Planetary Camera at Arp 147, a pair of galaxies a mere 400 million light years away. The image at the top shows that the galaxy on the left passed right through the galaxy on the right. Which is why the one on the right looks like someone just put their fist through it.
When I look at Arp 147 I’m reminded of just how violent our universe can be. When you look up at the night sky it seems like it’s all quiet up there. Nothing but a bunch of peaceful little stars twinkling away.
Outer space is super fun!
Couldn’t be further from the truth. Because there’s nothing quiet about one galaxy smashing into another and ripping a hole right through it. And here we are worried about a kooky old man and his pet pitbull winning an election. A walk in the park compared to having a whole galaxy slam into us.
I guess it’s all relative. The only thing that stars have to worry about is other stars slamming into them. And the only thing people have to worry about is other people screwing things up. Whether it’s a sports team blowing it year after year, or a political party blowing it year after year.
At least we have the power to change the way things are. Even the stars can’t do that. All they can do is close their twinkling eyes and wait for impact.
Which, coincidently, is exactly what I’m going to do tomorrow night. Because I don’t know about you, but power to change or not, I am pretty damn terrified right about now.
