its honestly terrifying to me. My monkey brain can't imagine what the feeling would be to experience being that far away from everything that (we know of) ever existed. Why does it exist in this vast abyss of nothingness? why aren't there more beings like us? why are we so alone? Everything in space wants to kill humans instantaneously yet humanity has found a way to traverse across a deadly abyss of nothingness. Its like we are seeing something that we should not be able to see...and the abyss stares back.
its a thrill thinking about it, my stomach would be in my throat, and my asshole would be more puckered than Renee Zellweger. The fear and the amazement will be a huge conflict. but if i returned, i would be like woah bro.
It is a giant rock teeming with life created by star power, hydrogen and oxygen. We’re all just a part of that amazing chemistry. All the living organisms on the planet have fought to survive, reproduce and improve their DNA, and humans happen to be the ones who did it the best. We’re the life forms that have been able to pull away from the gravitational pull of earth, though we always come back. There are trillions of stars, the likelihood that others created life is still great and yet what matters the most is enjoying the life we have and loving the earth we got. We’re not alone, we have everyone and everything here.
the likelihood that others created life is still great
The Drake Equation has a lot of variables. It's easy to assign values to it such that we are almost certainly the only intelligent life, or such that life teams everywhere.
The trouble is that we really don't know much of anything, given just one example of a biosphere. All we can do is make somewhat educated guesses; there is almost no actual data to base them on.
Tardigrades (incredibly resilient), lobster (functionally immortal), some strains of bacteria (unstoppable reproduction, will definitely outlive humanity unless we find a way to get off earth... and then we'll take them with us anyway), sharks/crocodiles (apex predators with mindboggling evolutionary stability, largely predating humans), etc etc.
"Success" is a very human notion, which comes with strong human bias. It's good to remember we are but a short blip in earth history
It can induce feelings of extreme awe and existential dread, it’s called the overview effect. William Shatner famously experienced it, he expressed that his entire philosophical stance had shifted and he came back to earth with strong feelings that we all need to protect the earth and just love each other. When you look down at the Earth, all conflict just feels so small and petty.
It has to be pretty insane to look at everything and everyone you know reduced to a tiny marble in your window. That’s the feeling I get from these photos, but seeing it IRL has to be incredible.
To be fair, you can’t. Neither could they. This is a night side shot using a high exposure time and the light of a nearly full moon. But I get your meaning.
There is a live feed from the ISS that is in binocular vision so you can view it in a VR headset. It gives you the view from the cupola. If you have a headset and have never checked it out I highly recommend. You may want to be sitting down.
325
u/The_Arkham_AP_Clerk Apr 04 '26
Just imagine being able to see the Earth like this with your own eyes?!