Someone I follow on Twitter tweeted this picture claiming it is a picture of the Earth and its moon as seen from Mercury.
(1) Who went to Mercury and took the picture?
(2) Can we get him or her a better zoom lens?
Apparently this was actually taken by the Messenger probe in orbit around Mercury and transmitted back. Pretty cool.
Pictures like this make me feel small and actually, they kinda hurt my brain. Trying to conceive of the enormity of the universe in which we exist as relative specks of slightly warm dust just strains my weak mental capabilities.
Still, we are specks of dust that invented flying machines and then managed to get into space - and return alive - in less than a century (unless you believe the conspiracy theorists).
Seeing our own planet as a tiny reflective orb from orbit around another planet takes looking in the mirror to a new and scary level. On a personal level, it seems to me like it would be equivalent to looking in the mirror and seeing all your ancestors and all your progeny looking back. Or on a spiritual level, like looking in the mirror and seeing all your mistakes, kindnesses, lessons, failures and achievements staring you back.
I'm kinda off the deep end here. But when you consider that we have gone from the really ignorant notion that the earth was the center of the universe several hundred years ago to taking images of our own planet from orbit around Mercury, it is humbling. Does it make you wonder what amazing things we will accomplish, solve, prove and discover in the next hundred years? It is daunting and exciting!
But for now, this picture is only gonna get the conspiracy theorists going again.
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