S P A C E !

Ahoy, Lifers.  This is your Captain speaking.  Having been watching a lot of Cosmos lately, and having been inspired by Symphony of Science, I was reminded of an activity I used to enjoy in high school but that had fallen out of my routine in college.  I used to periodically visit NASA's Image of the Day page, which if you've never done I highly recommend.  They have some of the most remarkable and beautiful images you'll ever see (I considered describing them as "out of this world," but even the Life Despotic has standards).  I'm always impressed that the actual images of the cosmos exceed aesthetically even my most ideal conceptions of them.  To that end, I've done the legwork for you and collected here some of my favorite images from their archive.  That's right, my dear readers, fear not, for this is not another long-winded and poorly-reasoned meditation on astrophysics, but rather a modest collection of pretty pictures.  As I can't let you get away without having to read some text, however, I've paired the images with some of my favorite, most poignant quotes by our friend and cosmic mentor, Dr. Sagan.

Preach, Carl.

The cosmos is full beyond measure

Of elegant truths,

Of exquisite interrelationships,

Of the awesome machinery of nature.

A still more glorious dawn awaits,

Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise.

A morning filled with 400 billion suns,

The rising of the Milky Way.

Our obligation to survive and flourish 

Is owed not just to ourselves 

But also to that cosmos, 

Ancient and vast,
From which we spring.

We have lingered long enough 

On the shores of the cosmic ocean. 

We are ready,

At last,

To set sail for the stars.  

If a human disagrees with you, 

Let him live. 

In a hundred billion galaxies, 

You will not find another.

Somewhere, 

Something incredible 

Is waiting to be known.

The sky calls to us. 

If we do not destroy ourselves,

we will one day venture to the stars.

The surface of the Earth 

Is the shore of the cosmic ocean.  

The water seems inviting. 

The ocean calls.

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day 

And think it's forever. 

One of the greatest revelations of space exploration

Is the image of the Earth,

Finite and lonely,

Bearing the entire human species

Through the oceans of

Space and time.

Thanks, Carl.

From the virtual desk of Ivan Zissou

dictated but not read

cth