Images from NASA Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).
Click on the image to see extra large view.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, ready to uncover new worlds, peer ever deeper into space, and even map the invisible backbone of the universe. The first snapshots from the refurbished Hubble showcase the 19-year-old telescope's new vision.
Topping the list of exciting new views are colorful multi-wavelength pictures of far-flung galaxies, a densely packed star cluster, an eerie "pillar of creation," and a "butterfly" nebula.
With its new imaging camera, Hubble can view galaxies, star clusters, and other objects across a wide swathe of the electromagnetic spectrum, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light. A new spectrograph slices across billions of light-years to map the filamentary structure of the universe and trace the distribution of elements that are fundamental to life.
NASA astronauts installed the new instruments during the space shuttle servicing mission in May 2009.
Via positiva Via negativa
Upright primate
whatever you believe in,
take some time
to leave the confines of yourself.
Accept the invitation
to look up
through the skies,
up to the deepest view you have ever had
of this dense dark blanket of space.
Know the vista is not your invention.
Know the vista is not your invention.
Then cast your eyes to the ground below
and look carefully
at the myriad world teeming within,
where in one gram of soil
ten thousand million species grow.
Know now you are not the sole owner
Know now you are not the sole owner
of this floor to ceiling canvas.
Where the land slopes to the sea,
wind, water, light and darkness toil.
Not on your behalf does this spectacle unfold.
You can be ignored.
The dark alchemy of transformation
may allow you to see that
all you do these days is
cut and paste
from the scrapyards of your waste.
You don’t know what goes on inside the box
fall /redemption,
body/soul,
matter/spirit,
natural/supernatural:
you have no idea at all.
Know what you are
and look beyond your boastful self
to see and understand
the journey and its goal are intermingled.
Know that each one of the specks in your eye
twelve billion
is a galaxy of stars and planets,
feeble and incoherent reflections entwined.
Know that each one of the specks in your eye
contains a thousand billion universes
to which wandering magi
will travel to,
to something their minds cannot grasp,
but which they recognise
as so much more sublime and
The future is out there.
Let go.
Be nurtured.
Be transformed.
AND A BIBLICAL REPONSE
Job 38
The Lord Speaks
Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said:
“Who is this that darkens my counsel
with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
“Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?
“Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.
The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
“What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years!
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no man lives,
a desert with no one in it,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
“Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?
Can you loose the cords of Orion?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
“Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
Who endowed the heart with wisdom
or gave understanding to the mind?
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
when the dust becomes hard
and the clods of earth stick together?
“Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
and satisfy the hunger of the lions
when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in a thicket?
Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
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