Update: I originally posted this picture in 2009, but since then scientists have revisited this section of our sky with the Hubble Telescope and have captured even more details.
Now going on 10 years later and this is still the most amazing image I have ever seen, the most faraway reaches of our universe ever photographed. In this tiny pinprick of one of the darkest regions of the sky, are more than 10,000 galaxies. That’s right those aren’t stars, but galaxies. And since these galaxies are so far away and it has taken the light 13.2 billion years to reach Earth, this photograph is like viewing backwards in time, to shortly after the big bang. Maybe even more amazing is that scientists say photographing the entire celestial sphere with such fine resolution would take over a million years. And even more amazing than that is imagining the trillions of civilizations nestled within this frame, and perhaps the quadrillions of telescopes looking back upon us. So boggling is this image, that I’m inspired by a spiritual fervor and say, this is the closest to seeing the face of God that I’ve ever come.
This is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) photograph, and you read more about this photo, see bigger versions, and view many more fantastic photos at their website: http://www.hubblesite.org
The first picture of a planet outside our solar system
Update: The photo above was originally posted two years before I would have the real chance to visit Mars.
I found another amazing photo that rivals the first. Here is the first picture of a planet outside our solar system. Would you volunteer to be the first person to visit this planet even if it took your whole life to get there? I originally posted this photo two years before I would have the real chance to visit Mars. It is estimated to take 120 days to get to Mars if the planets are in their closest positions.
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Aristotle
