HUMILITY - THE GREATEST LESSON OF ASTRONOMY

on 31 December 2024.

I thought the new year was a good time to mention, yet again just how big space is and how miniscule we are. The best speaker I've ever heard on matters cosmological was a wonderful man called Carl Sagan a superb thinker, scientist and communicator who died too young nearly thirty years ago. I'm never ashamed to pinch his words in trying to explain the universe.

So, what is our place in the universe, not so long ago in history, it was 'known' that Earth was the centre of everything and all else that existed circles around us, everything existed for the sole use of mankind. In 1752 Voltaire talked of two imaginary inhuman visitors falling over laughing that anyone should think this. Historically people believed that the Earth was the centre of everything, then, after Galileo's telescope showed that this was wrong they decided that our Sun was the centre, then later that the solar system was the centre, and in the 1930s some even postulated that our galaxy was the only one.
Our sun is but one star amongst 1000,000.000 in the milky way galaxy, and there are at least 100,000,000,000 galaxies, probably many more if we can ever count them. To see what is called a deep sky photograph where every tiny point of light is a galaxy teeming with stars stretches our imaginations to breaking point.
How wrong pride can be, Earth’s true place in the cosmos doesn't reflect the belief that humans have always had in our own importance within a vast universe. Humans have no special place in the vastness, perhaps no one has. The universe has no reason to notice our miniscule existence amongst its vastness, yet possibly humans alone can notice the beauty of creation.
Are we totally meaningless in the face of all this? I think not because humans are only at the beginning of understanding ourselves and creation, our belief that we know a lot is almost certainly misplaced and in time, hopefully we will understand so much more. Whether we are alone or not does not change our responsibility to our world, perhaps some more humility of our true place in existence would make us look after ourselves a bit better. Would the universe be beautiful if there was no one to admire it?
For those that have never seen it I would urge you to Google Carl Sagans Pale Blue Dot. It’s a short video showing a picture of the Earth taken from a vast distance away by a Voyager spacecraft. Carl expressed in his unique way just how tiny we are and how futile human strife is in the face of the universe.
This month’s picture is of the pillars of creation a very small part of the Eagle nebula. New stars are being created here from the clouds of dust pulled together by gravity, a stunningly beautiful sight to see.

Charles Oates, Vega Baja Astronomy Group.

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