From a distance, as Gulliver’s observation of the Lilliputians reveals, beauty abounds. We see physical beauty in people, mountains, stars from distant perspectives, like the “happy little trees” the late Bob Ross painted on grand vistas. Close up, the mole on the tip of the nose is apparent. It’s difficult to find proximal beauty because details beg critical inspection.
Confined as we are on a little planet in the suburbs of the Milky Way, what we see in the distance appears grand: The rings of Saturn, for example, the multicolored bands of Jupiter’s atmosphere bending around the Giant Red Spot, or the methane-blue and lightning-lit atmosphere of Neptune. Certainly, the sky is filled with distal wonders that close-up inspection might diminish for the frightful dangers they would pose if we were close by.
But there’s no denying that beauty-at-a-distance. Take, for example, the impending collision between galaxies IC 1559 and NGC 169. * Located in the Constellation Andromeda, the two galaxies are over 200 million light-years away, far enough for many details to be obscured in a beautiful light show. Both galaxies are, however, dangerous active galaxies that spew out gamma and X-rays. The visible light image above hides the reality of their ionizing radiation. Best to see the collision from a distance, like seeing a fireworks display over the Castle at Disney World from the park grounds. At a distance no one gets a phosphorous burn.
If there are life-forms on planets in either galaxy, they, too, might see a spectacular sky, but the impending collision is already starting to express itself in enormous tidal forces that will distort both galaxies during a collision that might last millions to billions of years and involve repeated passes as they fall into a mutual gravity well that will combine them into a single larger galaxy.
Seeing the image draws to mind not just the discovery of Gulliver that the actual details of the Lilliputians revealed a different reality from the one he surmised, but also the discovery each of us makes when we see close-up those we might have deemed from a distance to be worth praise, emulation, and even discipleship. History holds many examples, but one comes to mind: the adulation of Hitler in pre-war Germany. Political leaders have long been seen initially through telescopes that belie what microscopes eventually reveal. The destroyed cities of Germany in 1945 began the decade in a seeming grandeur that was very much like the image of the impending collision between IC 1559 and NGC 169. The details of death and destruction were hidden in a distal future.
Judging others by their distant display seems to underlie how many people view those whose ideologies they favor. They see people of like mind through telescopes. They see those who differ, however, through microscopes.
* Credit for the image and explanation: Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, Department of Energy (DOE), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory/NoirLab/National Science Foundation/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS); Acknowledgment: J. Schmidt. Press release: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. 11 Feb 2022. phys.org news. Online at https://phys.org/news/2022-02-image-hubble-views-cosmic-interaction.html Accessed February 13, 1022.
Confined as we are on a little planet in the suburbs of the Milky Way, what we see in the distance appears grand: The rings of Saturn, for example, the multicolored bands of Jupiter’s atmosphere bending around the Giant Red Spot, or the methane-blue and lightning-lit atmosphere of Neptune. Certainly, the sky is filled with distal wonders that close-up inspection might diminish for the frightful dangers they would pose if we were close by.
But there’s no denying that beauty-at-a-distance. Take, for example, the impending collision between galaxies IC 1559 and NGC 169. * Located in the Constellation Andromeda, the two galaxies are over 200 million light-years away, far enough for many details to be obscured in a beautiful light show. Both galaxies are, however, dangerous active galaxies that spew out gamma and X-rays. The visible light image above hides the reality of their ionizing radiation. Best to see the collision from a distance, like seeing a fireworks display over the Castle at Disney World from the park grounds. At a distance no one gets a phosphorous burn.
If there are life-forms on planets in either galaxy, they, too, might see a spectacular sky, but the impending collision is already starting to express itself in enormous tidal forces that will distort both galaxies during a collision that might last millions to billions of years and involve repeated passes as they fall into a mutual gravity well that will combine them into a single larger galaxy.
Seeing the image draws to mind not just the discovery of Gulliver that the actual details of the Lilliputians revealed a different reality from the one he surmised, but also the discovery each of us makes when we see close-up those we might have deemed from a distance to be worth praise, emulation, and even discipleship. History holds many examples, but one comes to mind: the adulation of Hitler in pre-war Germany. Political leaders have long been seen initially through telescopes that belie what microscopes eventually reveal. The destroyed cities of Germany in 1945 began the decade in a seeming grandeur that was very much like the image of the impending collision between IC 1559 and NGC 169. The details of death and destruction were hidden in a distal future.
Judging others by their distant display seems to underlie how many people view those whose ideologies they favor. They see people of like mind through telescopes. They see those who differ, however, through microscopes.
* Credit for the image and explanation: Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, Department of Energy (DOE), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory/NoirLab/National Science Foundation/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS); Acknowledgment: J. Schmidt. Press release: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. 11 Feb 2022. phys.org news. Online at https://phys.org/news/2022-02-image-hubble-views-cosmic-interaction.html Accessed February 13, 1022.
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