Shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Telescope cross in front of the sun in this image captured by Thierry Legault
Enlarged section added to show greater detail. The shuttle was traveling at 15,534 mph. The trip across the sun takes 0.8 seconds.
Last week Atlantis was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on a mission to repair the aging and ailing Hubble Telescope.
These images captured by Thierry Legault help to put the enormity and awesome nature of our universe in perspective.
There are those who believe that mankind can influence the earth in a negative way. These photographs should help us to remember that we are miniscule in the grand scheme of things.
Shuttle Atlantis crosses in front of the sun prior to its’ rendezvous with Hubble. The narrow profile indicates that the payload bay doors are open.
And so, while the petty politicians bleat, and the small and not so small wars rage on in fits and starts, almost everyone on the Earth will sleep tonight with someone they don’t really mind all that much. And tomorrow the kids in the playground across the street will run and skip and jump at recess. And tomorrow our planet, one of many like it or perhaps alone in the universe, will turn full of much more goodness and grace than hate and suffering.
And tomorrow, somewhere in mid-heaven, floating weightless between the Earth and the Sun, men and women will carefully repair and refurbish a telescope so that we might see ever deeper into the whole of creation, and perhaps even, just a bit, into the mind and purposes of God.
Hubble’s Astounding Photographs:
So…. Is THAT the cause of global warming? The Sun get’s pissed off that we fly our Space Shuttle past it?
Wow! Awesome pics!
You will also note the extensive distribution of sunspots covering the … uh, ..face …..of ………the ……….uh, …………….nevermind.
Climate change isn’t really one of my big issues, but I do have to dispute this type of thinking. We almost put the bald eagle out of existence with overspraying of DDT. We can, and do, impact our environment.
Unfortunately people have a tend to act in the extremes rather than in reasoned, moderate policy. The banning of DDT lead to an increase in malaria deaths… again the solution probably lies in the middle.
Amazing that some thing so advanced in our world looks so insignificant beside an object in space such as the sun.
@Fit fit:
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Climate change isn’t really one of my big issues, but I do have to dispute this type of thinking. We almost put the bald eagle out of existence with overspraying of DDT. We can, and do, impact our environment.
Unfortunately people have a tend to act in the extremes rather than in reasoned, moderate policy. The banning of DDT lead to an increase in malaria deaths… again the solution probably lies in the middle.
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Dude,
First DDT did *NOT* “almost put the bald eagle out of existence” I dare your to find me some reputable scientific data to support that statement.
Even the director of the EPA at the time admitted that the ban was a purely political decision and not one based on science. Unfortunately, the millions who died from malaria because DDT was banned were not a scientific abstraction.
Prove me wrong.
Hey guys, noticed there were NO sunspots?
Mr. Gore, is that the fault of Bush too?????
Somewhat off topic, but I have always been humbled by the beauty and vastness of the universe. In fact, I always keep the NASA photo gallery bookmarked as a way to space travel from my keyboard.
What always strikes me is the enormity of man’s ego, believing we have the power to permanently affect anything but our own existance. We can, and will most likely, destroy ourselves. But it won’t be thru altering the planet’s climate. After our demise, Mother Earth will carry on in whatever form, as is conducive to her life’s cycle.
@Fit fit: Still repeating the lies over and over and passing them off as truth?
http://www.eco-imperialism.com/content/article.php3?id=209
Millions of African children have died as a direct result of the willful ignorance of people like YOU!
@ Bubba Man & Mike
Fighting dirty with facts? You should both be ashamed. 😉
In the grand scheme of things (in terms of scale – not to us!) – our sun is insignificant
Not in terms to our survival, Gaffa. Don’t believe me? Move out one planet further from that insignificant sun, or one closer, and see how long you last.
@Fit fit:
For me there’s no “middle” where human life is concerned. I’ll take one human over all the bald eagles in the world.
But then, I don’t have to, because DDT wasn’t the problem all along.
http://www.eco-imperialism.com/content/article.php3?id=209
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,55843,00.html
But the “egg thinning” meme made great propaganda that most of us who didn’t have access to the facts believed because the MSM all told us it was true.
So now it’s just a matter of getting the fools (who have access to the info, and still ban it, or pretend to still believe that nonsense just to appease some interest group) to acknowledge the error and fix it, like that will happen any day soon.
ps – am i getting slow in my od age, or did you really come accross as relatively (almost) sensible this time? good thing I was sitting when i read that.
pps – Youi said “We can, and do, impact our environment.” That’s true locally, not globally. We can no more alter the earth’s climate than a bunch of fruit flies can affect the temperature of the house they are buzzing around in.
I was out at Kitt Peak (SW of Tucson) Observatory where they have the McMath-Pierce Solar telescope (largest solar telescope in the world). We went out there last July and since there was no one else around, one of the professors there let us in to the back areas and he was showing us how little activity there was. He showed us 1 very faint sun spot and that was it. He explained that while the suns activity was expected to increase, it was unusally quiet. He also stated that the last time the sun was “dormant” for any significant length of time, we had our little ice age. Seeing as the sun is still very quiet (almost 1 year later) and the world is actually cooling instead of getting warmer, we could be moving into another mini or full blown ice age. Could Gore’s Nobel prize be revoked?
Why is there no sun activity? It’s as smooth as a baby’s butt.
@MataHarley
Of course – hence why I put ‘in terms of scale – not to us!’
@GaffaUK:
“In the grand scheme of things (in terms of scale – not to us!) – our sun is insignificant”
The sky is blue, the grass is green, GaffaUK is still a waste of time.
@yonason
lol – oh well.
I just think how amazing that we circle this star which is part of a galaxy which is estimated to have between 200-400 billions of stars. And that the universe is estimated to have at least 100 billion galaxies. If the sun can dwarf man – just think how mind-blowing the rest of the universe is – in terms of scale and all the things we don’t know but hopefully will.