We haven't been born yet

"I think the problem with humans is they keep trying to find other humans." 

To elaborate because that is a complex sentence which sounds so simple it looks basic. So I'd start from the beginning.

Even if you've never been interested in Astronomy, you must've seen a few 'spacey' pictures floating around the internet recently.

Everyone's been in a frenzy since US president, Joe Biden unveiled NASA's shots of the past, captured by the $10 Billion massive telescope orbiting the sun right now.

Well that's the backstory, so let's begin;

What's JWST?

JWST is an acronym for James Webb Space Telescope.

JWST is the latest space telescope with improved infrared resolution and sensitivity which will allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope (launched in 1990), so essentially it's a huge upgrade from old HST.

Where is the James Webb telescope currently located?

The JWST is now orbiting around an invisible point in space known as an 'Earth-Sun' Lagrange point (Lagrange points are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under two massive orbiting bodies).

How long will it take the James Webb telescope to reach its destination?

Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which currently orbits the Earth, James Webb's orbit will have it moving through space circling the sun. It reached the entry point for its orbit, over one million miles away, on Monday, January 24, 2022. This only took roughly a month to reach its orbit. Talk about the speed on this thing—it's giving fast and straightforward.

What will the James Webb telescope take pictures of?

The JWST is a space telescope that was created to 'observe,' so it's only logical for the telescope to take pictures of galaxies, planets, and more.

How far is James Webb telescope from Earth now?

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is now orbiting around the sun at a distance of nearly 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.

What is the difference between the Hubble telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope?

The Webb telescope's primary mirror is 6.5 meters in diameter, compared with Hubble's, which is 2.4 meters, giving Webb about seven times as much light-gathering capability and thus the ability to see further into the past. The pictures we see are equivalent to time traveling in some way.

The image shows thousands of galaxies as they appeared 4.6 billion years ago. 4 BILLION years ago. I wonder what we were all doing four billion years ago.

Before Earth was Earth. Before the first single-celled organism blinked into existence. Back when our solar system was just a swirl of cosmic dust, not even a twinkle in the universe's eye.

Four billion years ago, the ingredients of you were scattered across nebulae - carbon in some distant gas cloud, oxygen trapped in interstellar ice, iron forged in a dead star's final explosion. Your atoms were homeless. Unaware they'd one day conspire to form hands to hold coffee, lungs to laugh, eyes to squint at telescope images on a phone screen.

And before that?

Go back further. Ten billion years. The universe is young, frantic, still figuring itself out. Galaxies collide like drunk revelers. Stars are born and die in violent bursts. There's no Earth, no sun, no planets - just chaos with potential.

Your atoms? They're even more lost. Some are trapped in the core of a blue giant star. Others are dust motes dancing in the void. None of them know they'll eventually meet up for coffee in your bloodstream circa 2022.

Now fast-forward.

Four billion years ago, Earth finally exists - a molten rock getting bullied by asteroids. No oceans yet. No oxygen. Just lava and lightning. But somewhere in that hellscape, a molecule twitches. Then replicates. Then makes a mistake while replicating.

That mistake is life.

It doesn't know it's alive. Doesn't care. It just is. And given enough time - enough collisions, mutations, cosmic luck - that molecule's descendants will evolve into things that do care. Things that build telescopes to ask, "What came before me?"

Here's the joke:

The universe spent 10 billion years prepping your raw materials. Earth spent another 4 billion years assembling them. Countless catastrophes were avoided - asteroid misses, climate stabilizes, extinction events narrowly survived - just so you could exist today.

And what do you do with this astronomical luck?

Scroll Twitter. Argue about politics. Worry about rent.

The irony isn't lost on me.

We're time travelers made of ancient stardust, using a $10 billion telescope to look backward while tripping over our own shoelaces in the present. We crave connection so badly we'll DM strangers at 3 AM, yet ignore the fact that every atom in our bodies is literally from the stars we're trying to photograph.

So when JWST shows us galaxies from 4.6 billion years ago, it's not just showing us the past. It's showing us us.

Long before you had a name, you were stellar debris. Long after you're gone, you'll be stardust again. In between? You get to be a universe that knows itself - for a little while.


Enjoy the view.

❤ I hope you enjoyed this short article. Don't forget to share the link or screenshot a part of this post that resonated with you. Have a good day. Bye.

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Comments

  1. Anonymous1:48 AM, July 13, 2022

    Really nerve racking to consider we are not alone

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ryan2301:49 AM, July 13, 2022

    Pleasant article

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous12:05 PM, August 06, 2022

    Unique thinking process

    ReplyDelete

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