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127
128

Just how tiny and insignificant we are [pic] (i.min.us)

submitted ago by vindicated19

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[–]evilmaverick 12 points13 points ago

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TIL: Wolf 359 is a real star, not just the site of a massacre.

[–]Tarv2 7 points8 points ago*

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Wolf 359, NEVER FORGET.

[–]LordBrandon 2 points3 points ago

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and it's only slightly bigger than Jupiter, yet it has achieved fusion

[–]yellowstone10 2 points3 points ago

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It's only slightly bigger in radius, but its mass is roughly 100 times that of Jupiter.

[–]CJGibson 1 point2 points ago

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I definitely read "Wolf 359" and had to google it to remember why I knew it. So I guess I've failed Tarv2's imperative.

[–]The_Flatlander 9 points10 points ago

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suck it mercury, you little bitch!

[–]LincolnSt 8 points9 points ago

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Just... remember... that you're standing on a planet thats evolving and revolving at 900 miles an hour!

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points ago

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The same thing as the Image, in video format: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKTu6B4Rgek

Stars get big!

[–]RedSquaree 0 points1 point ago

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This is what I was going to post. Great video.

[–][deleted] 16 points17 points ago

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Check this shit out.

It's the mother fucking Hubble Deep Field. This shit ass image was made by Hubble just staring into one fucking spot for 10 mother-fucking days, and capturing all the fucking light it could. If you read past the first sentence, you would be able to fucking understand that the image "covers an area 2.5 arcminutes across, two parts in a million of the WHOLE MOTHERFUCKING SKY".

That camera angle is the same as taking a picture of a tennis ball 100 fucking meters away. And getting just the fucking tennis ball.

But what's in the photos? All those little fucking things aren't stars like those in your pictures. THOSE ARE FUCKING GALAXIES. That's right, galaxies. There's several hundred billion of those fucking puny stars in an entire galaxy, this makes that tiny-ass VY Canis Majoris look like a fucking fingernail on our entire body.

Let's face it, you really have no motherfucking idea how tiny and pathetic you are. But everyone else does, that image got cited in grade-fucking-a papers over 800 times by the end of 2008. So yea. Forget it.

If you want to feel even more fucking insignificant and pathetic, then get Celestia and explore the fucking galaxy already.

[–]ShawnDaley 2 points3 points ago

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I read that as the Hubble Derp Field. Way too much Reddit... but awesome info.

[–]Negative__One 2 points3 points ago

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You talk just like my Astronomy 101 teacher.

[–]Scrambley 1 point2 points ago

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Tiny does not assume pathetic. I take umbrage.

[–]SwampRoot 1 point2 points ago

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I wish I could curse like this. sigh

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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/r/spacedicks

YOU BETTER BE FUCKING PREPARED, NO WIMPY ASS SHIT

[–]lieguy 1 point2 points ago

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Mother fucking mind = goddamn blown

[–]perryjon1 0 points1 point ago

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I got motherfucking Celestia and explored the motherfucking galaxy LIKE MOTHERFUCKING INSIGNIFICANT BOSS.

[–]samuraichikx 2 points3 points ago

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something I thought was cool, VY Canis Majoris

[–]pkmnmaster 11 points12 points ago

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size doesn't equal significance

[–]wickedsteve -2 points-1 points ago

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Smallness is actually one of the definitions of insignificant so when cosmologicaly speaking it usually means so small in scale it almost does not even make a difference. You gotta switch language when speaking scientificaly. It is like confusing a scientific theory with any speculation presented as a theory. Even if just your tiniest pet means the whole world to you, the whole world still don't mean jack to even our tiny corner of the universe. Don't confuse subjective signifigance with objective signifigance.

[–]hegrtn 0 points1 point ago

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Small in scale of what is the point. Scientifically, we are not only concerned with the size of planets or stars. For example, when it comes to something like the ability to sustain life the Earth is extraordinarily significant.

It's not just about 'Home, Sweet Home' sentimentality but about the fact that the phenomenon of life has not yet been observed anywhere else in the known universe, never mind at a comparable complexity to human beings. The fact that we are even aware of our comparable planetary size is miraculous in itself in the sense that this awareness and the technology that has developed it, within the realm of our observation, are wholly unique phenomena.

[–]art-iii 0 points1 point ago*

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If infinity exist, that would mean that we have observed nothing, period. Everything is insignificant compared to infinity. For all we know our universe is insignificant. You speak like we've discovered even a fraction of what exist, which is impossible. Our realm of observation is insignificant.

If infinity exist, everything is common. In infinity everything exist an infinite number of times. it can't be quantified and there is no point in trying to understand it all. I don't know what I believe. I just know that we don't know anything. To believe otherwise flies in the face of what we do know.

Edit: Did you look at the same picture? Think about how many planets exist within that tiny insignificant fraction of our universe and the think about what lies beyond our universe. Thinking that we are in the only universe is like thinking the sun revolves around the earth.

[–]wickedsteve 0 points1 point ago

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Now you are just speculating. No data indicates whether life is common or rare. We just now started detecting extrasolar planets. There is no telling yet which have life or don't. Our realm of observation is way to small of a sample to make a call either way.

[–]hegrtn 0 points1 point ago

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Whether there is life elsewhere in the universe is irrelevant to the fact that our planet is the only one to support life that we know of. It is extremely significant from a scientific standpoint because it is the only planet that suggests to us that life is a phenomenon at all and its example guides us completely in the attempt to find life elsewhere.

[–]wickedsteve 1 point2 points ago*

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It's the only planet with life out of 8. So you think 1 out of 8 is significant? 1 out of nine were destroyed. Would that suggest destruction on that level would be as unique as you would like to believe life is?

[–]art-iii 0 points1 point ago

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Just because its significant to us doesn't mean its significant to overall scheme of things. You're arguing the definition of significance. The post is talking about the cosmos in their entirety. We are definitely an insignificant part of that.

[–]SteiniDJ 2 points3 points ago

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Sure, but every individual on Earth is just as unique as these stars and, as far as we know, indefinitely rarer.

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points ago

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I'm guessing you mean infinite.

Derp.

[–]SteiniDJ 0 points1 point ago

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So, "infinitely rarer"?

[–]Japeth 5 points6 points ago

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I still don't see why size == significance? That's ridiculous. Life is an event so rare that we haven't even been able to find another example of it yet, despite our best efforts at search. We can locate literally billions of stars in any direction we look.

[–]Angeldust01 1 point2 points ago

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The known universe

[–]ShawnDaley 1 point2 points ago

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One of the best things I've seen on Reddit in a while good sir.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points ago

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I like this version better.

[–]harvey-birdman 2 points3 points ago

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Tiny? Yes. Insignificant? Don't think so.

[–]spacester -1 points0 points ago

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This.

[–]galosch 0 points1 point ago

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TIL Mars is smaller than Earth.

[–]CJGibson 7 points8 points ago

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That's kind of sad, actually.

[–]xebo 1 point2 points ago*

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Keep going down to the atomic scale and you'll find that people are right in the middle as size goes. Most interesting* stuff tends to be at our scale.

Plus, I don't really subscribe to the "insignificant" perspective for people. Individually, sure we are only capable of knowing or doing so much; Collectively, however, our species is capable of understanding virtually anything, given enough time.

For instance, when we put a man on the moon, it took a collaboration of people, each with their own specialized field of expertise. I'm sure no single man fully understood how all of those gadgets came together to get people to another world, but collectively it became practically procedural. Given enough time, I see no reason people won't (collectively) be able to comprehend/do pretty much anything.

*interesting used in this context refers to consciousness, invention, imagination/thought, communication, growth, etc.

[–]retinascan 0 points1 point ago

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yeah. but can you live on those planets/stars? no? we win.

[–]LordBrandon 0 points1 point ago

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and i thought it was a long way to the laundry mat.

[–]takeheed 0 points1 point ago

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When you line them up like that. It almost makes it seem like a recipe.

As if you would need all the others to make Earth.

[–]isaac1682 0 points1 point ago

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space is awesomely huge

[–]KashmirKnitter 0 points1 point ago

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Fuck, space is BIG.

[–]pleen 1 point2 points ago

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"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001)

[–]KashmirKnitter 1 point2 points ago

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Yay! You just made my week!

[–]pleen 0 points1 point ago

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Glad to be of service.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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At least it will be hard for the Alien Death Squad™ to find us.

[–]nmmh 0 points1 point ago

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wow. we can each own an island on VY Canis Majoris. forget 40 acres and a mule.

[–]Noct3rn3 0 points1 point ago

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Fuck yeah VY Canis Majoris. Mother fucking is like the biggest bad ass mother fucking star in any known solar system. Makes the sun look like a bitch.

[–]marvelous_molester 0 points1 point ago

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Why do I never see contrasts of atoms, molecules and cells and people saying how significant we are?

[–]ranma08 0 points1 point ago

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so then there HAS to be other life forms right? We can't probably imagine what they are but the probability is high enough right?

[–]getwet 0 points1 point ago

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[commits suicide]

[–]soulbend 0 points1 point ago

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Wikipedia says the diameter of VY Canis Majoris is about 1.7 billion miles. This star is over 8 times larger than the distance from the Sun to the Earth!!

[–]CeeBmata 0 points1 point ago

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Nice find. Thanks for the pic.

[–]GrinningPariah 0 points1 point ago

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Tiny, yes.

Insignificant? No.

[–]apox64928 0 points1 point ago

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according to evolution, we are intelligent apes who have only recently left the trees, living on the third planet from a minor star, in a minor spiral arm of a minor galaxy, in a minor group of galaxies near the Virgo supercluser. -Michio Kaku

[–]DougLance 0 points1 point ago

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Sure I may be small, but I'm at the center of the universe!

[–]appletart -1 points0 points ago

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It may not be much, but it's all we have.

[–]Smunchy -1 points0 points ago

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I feel there are better graphs out there to show me how insignificant I am

[–]IZuStY -1 points0 points ago

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Meh, a bunch of balls aren't going to make me insignificant.

[–][deleted] -2 points-1 points ago

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My job interview went fucking horrible!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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Sorry to hear that, but this is the wrong thread.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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No actually this is the right thread, where the insignificance of such an claim is evident. But I guess subtle humor is lost on most of reddit.

[–]loganowens -2 points-1 points ago

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Did anyone else read that as Alderaan and do a double take?

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