The James Webb Space Telescope recently chanced upon something rather interesting, which can be seen in the center of that red-outlined square at the bottom of the above picture. Well, as it is, I guess it's a little too small to be of much interest to anybody, so let's enlarge it a bit:
That's right, it's a cosmic question mark! Boy, we've wasted all these years debating the possibility of extraterrestrial life when we really should have been focused on extraterrestrial punctuation. Scientists theorize it's merely two galaxies colliding with each other, which can result in all kinds of interesting shapes when seen from a very great distance. Andromeda and our own Milky Way galaxy are set on a collision course some four billion years from now, so who knows, we may end up an exclamation point or even a semicolon. An ampersand would be cool. With our luck it will probably be an asterisk, just another footnote in interstellar history.
As you might expect, there are those who don't buy it as an astronomical optical illusion at all, but instead see it as evidence of a Supreme Being. If so, then I find the prospect profoundly disturbing. After all, we're the one that are supposed to be asking the questions, not God!
The agnostics were right!
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHAHAHA! Good one, Debra!
DeleteHello Kirk, These high-resolution space photos are miraculous, mystifying, and incredibly beautiful all by themselves. They don't need any hidden messages, especially using the Roman character set. But wait until the numerologists and conspiracy theorists start connecting the dots! --Jim
ReplyDeleteJim, if all NASA did was come up with these pictures from the beginning of time, then to me it's worth every taxpayer dollar we spend on it. Unfortunately, I think too many people, weaned from watching too much science-fiction, expect manned space exploration, which remains difficult to do at any distance further out than the moon.
DeleteHmm, I went from past tense to present tense in that first sentence. That's what comes from too much stargazing.
DeleteThat's God right after the big bang going "What the hell did I just do?!"
ReplyDeleteHa! That's a good one too, Mike!
DeleteInteresting but I can't top Debra's comment.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to, Andrew. It's not a competition.
DeleteAndrew, I responded to your comment before I read Maddie's, so I may have spoken too soon. Nevertheless, I appreciate you leaving a comment.
DeleteOr could it be the Riddler with yet another puzzling question for us to answer before time runs out?
ReplyDeleteOh, jeez, Maddie, another good one! I feel like I'm at the Algonquin Round Table.
DeleteHow odd but how beautiful
ReplyDeleteAs is the universe, John.
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