Thankful for The Universe
Milky Way Center Mosaic from the Great Observatories (click to embiggen)
“We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens . . . The diversity of the phenomena of Nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.”
-Johannes Kepler, Mysterium Cosmographicum
Thanksgiving is a tradition where we surround ourselves with family and friends and reflect on what we are thankful for. Our health, our children, the ones we hold close are the first things that come to mind, of course. But I can’t help but also be tremendously thankful for the times we live in. We’re lucky enough to live in a time when the human race dines on a harvest of new revelations about the Universe around us. An almost daily banquet of new discoveries blur across my computer screen everyday, and as my eyes and mind feast on the vistas of other planets and other galaxies, I feel tempted to take it all for granted.
This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for our current golden age of scientific discovery. This is a unique time in human history, and it should be celebrated and protected by planting the seeds of education and peace. We should repay the hard work and sacrifice of the many scientists, inventors, engineers and visionaries who have toiled before us, by fulfilling our dreams. After all, our dreams are just theirs carried forward.
“Johannes Kepler believed that there would one day be ‘celestial ships with sails adapted to the winds of heaven’ navigating the sky, filled with explorers ‘who would not fear the vastness’ of space. And today those explorers, human and robot, employ as unerring guides on their voyages through the vastness of space the three laws of planetary motion that Kepler uncovered during a lifetime of personal travail and ecstatic discovery.” – Carl Sagan, Cosmos
