Thursday, October 28, 2010

Reading #2: A Short History on Nearly Everything 2-3

Quote: "Now a natural question is why it took so long for anyone to find a moon in our own solar system. The answer is that it is partly a matter of where astronomers point their instruments and partly a matter of what their instruments are designed to detect, and partly it's just Pluto."

Questions: Why do people tend to play up the true "beauty" of our solar system when in reality it's mostly uneventful and bland? How did astronomers create the tools they use to discover that the universe is in fact boring?

Comments: While the cosmos are very interesting to me, it's funny to now learn that the representations of space and our universe that I've been seeing my whole life are just an artist's view of what they look like. It's rather disappointing.

1 comment:

  1. I was disappointed by that too! Glad I'm not alone on that one.
    I do find the universe beautiful, though...or at least what I can see of the stars. Especially when you're in that rural darkness that allows you to see so much of them. It's overwhelmingly beautiful. Know what I mean?

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