The Infinite Wonder - Hubble, the Universe, and Our Future

American astronauts are completing a mission that breathed new life into, what I believe is, one of the greatest inventions of modern history. The Hubble Telescope has brought the infinite wonder of the universe into focus for all of us. Thanks to digital technology and the Internet we can see what Hubble sees and what Hubble sees in pretty amazing.

I understand that we are in the midst of a recession and there are a lot of important things we need to spend money on but this venture was more than worth the expense. The crew of Atlantis pulled off an amazing job completing many complex tasks in spacesuits; not to mention performing those tasks in the most hostile environment possible.

One of the things that make us human is a burning need to know. We must know what’s out there. We’ve had stories through our existence to appease our curiosity but now Hubble and our talented and courageous astronauts are starting to give us the real story.

MSNBC has put up a slide show of the astronaut’s favorite Hubble pictures. I would suggest that you check them out; they are amazing and inspiring. I am borrowing one of those shots for this article. This is not the prettiest shot but it is one that tells a great story in itself. U.S. Air Force Colonel Michael Good suggested this shot. The Hubble telescope took this shot while it was pointed at the constellation Fornax.

Those are not stars in the picture; they are galaxies; each one of them is comparable in size to our own Milky Way Galaxy. You are seeing, to steal a term from a great scientist, billions and billions of stars. If only one millionth of these stars contain a life sustaining planet; we are still looking at tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of possible life producing planets at a minimum.

This picture is also a look back in time. These are some of the oldest galaxies in the universe. Some were created only 700 million years after the big bang which means we are looking at some of the first light ever produced in the universe. This one picture tells us more about the universe than we knew for most of our history.

If we can get passed the problems we have; our journey into the universe can just be starting. We must come together and find the answers. It will mean that all of us will have to admit to our portions of selfishness and wrong doing and it will mean developing a true respect for our fellow human beings. If we can honestly do this; maybe we can share resources and find new ways to sustain our planet. What you see in that picture could be our reward for becoming truly human. We may still have our own star trek.