Few photographs have the ability to alter your perception of the Universe. In 2014, NASA released the Hubble Deep Field image, and it has that capacity. Over the course of two years, astronomers focused the space telescope on a nondescript patch of space, remarkable only in that it appeared empty from our vantage point on Earth. The focus of the Deep Field photo was smaller than your pinky nail held at arm’s length against the night sky. Instead of being empty, scientists found an estimated ten thousand galaxies. Almost every point of light in the photo is an entire galaxy, filled with hundreds of millions of solar systems. The light from the farthest galaxies has been traveling thirteen billion years to reach us. Astronomers have been working to revise their estimate of the number of galaxies in the Universe, based on this photo. They now believe there are hundreds of billions, and some believe it could be a trillion.
We occupy a unique moment in history. It has been less than one hundred years, 1924 in fact, since Edwin Hubble revealed that any galaxy besides our own Milky Way existed. With the Hubble Space Telescope, and now the even more powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the immense size and complexity of the Universe is being revealed. Edwin Hubble also discovered that the Universe is expanding, and calculated the rate of expansion, which leads to another point about our unique place in history. Without getting too deep into the physics, the speed of the expansion creates what is known as the cosmic horizon. The galaxies farthest away from us, on the other “side” of the Universe, are steadily disappearing from view. How many have already slipped beyond the cosmic horizon? If there’s intelligent life in one of those galaxies, we will never know it. And they will never know we existed.
I was five years old when the Beatles appeared on the American music scene (OK Boomer). It’s hard to overestimate the seismic impact they had on popular culture, and my life. Any history of the 1960’s and early 1970’s must include the transcendent importance of rock music in the story of that era. Music is important to every generation, and the songs that were popular in your coming of age form the soundtrack to your life. But the musical giants of the ’60’s and ’70’s changed our perception of the role music could play in how we viewed the world, and how it could change the world.
I read an article recently that pointed out the obvious: the rock idols of my generation are not getting any younger. Mick Jagger is 79. Paul McCartney just turned 80. Bob Dylan is 81. The list goes on. Sometime in the next few years, they will perform on stage for the last time. One day we will check our news feed to see that they have passed away. They will disappear beyond the cosmic horizon. We will remember our favorite song, remember where we were when we heard it first, remember that concert when we saw them live, when we were young and rebellious, full of piss and vinegar, and thank our lucky stars that they were part of our Universe.
Sounds of laughter shades of life are ringing
Through my open ears inciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe – The Beatles, Across the Universe, 1969
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