Week 9: Space and Art

Our Solar System's position in the Milky Way Galaxy (McLamb)
Space has always been a passion of mine. I am always filled with awe when I think about the wonders out there millions of miles away from Earth. We are just tiny specks compared to the whole universe.

Size comparisons of various celestial bodies (WikiMedia)
The Powers of Ten video really intrigued me. We put so much importance in our own lives, but we are only a microscopic piece of the universe (Powers of Ten). To put myself in scale, I am about 1.9 meters tall on a planet of over 7 billion people. The largest planet, Jupiter, can fit 1,300 Earths in it. The sun can fit about 1,000 Jupiters (Space Facts). The Milky Way galaxy contains 200-400 million other stars much like the sun. In fact, the largest known star is believed to be 100 times greater in size than the sun. And finally, there are believed to be 100 billion galaxies in the universe (Howell). 

Star Trek, one of the most influential works of art regarding space (Star Trek)

As the ocean was the obstacle 500 years ago, space is the next frontier. As technology rapidly improves, space exploration will as well. As Professor Vensa said, entertainment sources like TV and Hollywood have tackled space exploration (Vensa). At my old internship at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I had the opportunity to talk to many senior engineers. Over half of them said that the TV hit Star Trek had a huge influence on their interest in space and career aspirations. In addition, Star Trek has helped shape and influence essential technologies today such as cell phones and tablet computers (Howell). I believe that if we want to continue our journey in space (as well as technology), we have to cultivate the same passion in space that the first generation of space travelers and engineers had. This means art and media should be geared toward instilling a thirst for the unknown in future generations.

Professor Vensa said that Space is the final frontier and I agree. No matter how vast the universe is, we humans will always want to explore it.

Sources
McLamb, Eric. Earth at a Glance. Ecology, 14 Sept. 2011, www.ecology.com/2011/09/14/earth-glance/.

 “Comparison of planets and stars.”, WikiMedia, 25 Apr. 2015, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comparison_of_planets_and_stars_(sheet_by_sheet)_(Apr_2015_update).png.

 How Big Is the Sun? 1.3 Million Earths Visualised. Space Facts, space-facts.com/how-big-is-the-sun-million-earths/.

 Howell, Elizabeth. How Many Stars Are in the Milky Way? Space.com, 29 Mar. 2018, www.space.com/25959-how-many-stars-are-in-the-milky-way.html.

 Howell, Elizabeth. How Many Galaxies Are There? Space.com, 19 Mar. 2018, www.space.com/25303-how-many-galaxies-are-in-the-universe.html.

 Howell, Elizabeth. Star Trek: History & Effect on Space Technology. Space.com, 2 Feb. 2016, www.space.com/31802-star-trek-space-tech.html.

 Star Trek: The Original Series Synopsis. Star Trek, www.startrek.com/database_article/star-trek-the-original-series-synopsis.

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 5, 2018 at 3:16 PM

    Hi,
    I think the points you brought up were very interesting. I also found it interesting how small we are compared to the rest of the universe. I really liked how you compared studying space to studying the ocean and what is expected in the future. Overall, great read and blog post.

    ReplyDelete

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