I Need Some Space

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of outer space. My puny little brain cannot grasp the actual immensity of the universe as we know it (for all we know, as already vast as the capacity of the human mind has estimated it’s size, it can actually be bigger). It was one of my many fantasies as a kid to fly deep into outer space, the great unexplored final frontier. I daydreamed that I wrestled with the horns of a dilemma that an alien race proffered to me: they can take me on a short trip around the universe and reveal its myriad wonders, layer by mind-boggling layer. But the brief exploration that takes a couple of hours on board their space craft will actually take 50 years in terms of earth years. I will return to earth just a couple of hours older, while everything and everyone else would have aged 50 years! I would have quenched my burning thirst for knowledge, but everyone I know and love would all be in their 80’s and 90’s, if they’re even still alive! I will return to a planet that would be as alien to me as the race that earthling-napped me in the first place. Would I give up the once in a cosmic lifetime chance to explore the cosmos to where no man has gone before, just to be able to spend whatever time I have left with the people I love the most? Or would I abandon everything I hold dear just to drink from the cup of knowledge that would either satisfy me beyond my wildest imaginings, or leave me as hollow and empty as the receptacle I just drained? I never really answered that question since I didn’t have to. I’ll just have to cross that holographic proton laser bridge when I get there.

Here are some of my favorite space pics. They look like artist renditions, but they are actual photographs. They remind me of just how big the universe is, just how small I am, and just how insignificant some of my concerns are:

Jupiter and its moon Io as captured by New Horizons

Saturn as captured by Cassini

And of course, a view of the Earth from space