You might think...
Jun. 7th, 2005 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerThis picture of earth as seen from Mars is simultaneously more and less impressive than you'd expect. Take a look, I'll be here when you get back.
On the one hand, it's a tiny white dot, slightly stretched by the ling exposure it takes to see our reflected light over that immense distance. It's not the kind of picture you can get any real information out of - no chance of seeing Africa, let alone The Great Wall of China.
On the other hand, it shows quite how impressive the achievement is of getting a camera so far away. We're remotely controlling a tiny robot buggy on the surface of a planet so far away that the huge sphere we live on, large enough to hold thousands of years of human culture, billions of people, immense numbers of personal stories and all the wonders we're exposed to in our daily business - so far away that this sphere is a small white dot.
It's an incredibly technological achievement that simultaneously illustrates how small we are and how much we have the power to do, when we really try.
On the one hand, it's a tiny white dot, slightly stretched by the ling exposure it takes to see our reflected light over that immense distance. It's not the kind of picture you can get any real information out of - no chance of seeing Africa, let alone The Great Wall of China.
On the other hand, it shows quite how impressive the achievement is of getting a camera so far away. We're remotely controlling a tiny robot buggy on the surface of a planet so far away that the huge sphere we live on, large enough to hold thousands of years of human culture, billions of people, immense numbers of personal stories and all the wonders we're exposed to in our daily business - so far away that this sphere is a small white dot.
It's an incredibly technological achievement that simultaneously illustrates how small we are and how much we have the power to do, when we really try.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-08 05:55 am (UTC)