Light years away
Singapore- Shanghai, 25th April 2010
This week the world celebrated the anniversary of the Hubble telescope, launched into space 20 years ago now. They are dubbed our eyes in space as they can see light years away, things we can’t see from Earth. Hubble has discovered thousands of galaxies, some more than 11 billion (!) light years away. Just to get an idea of what a light year is…a light year is an official unit of distance; it is the distance light travels in one year. If you know that light travels at a speed of about 300,000km per second it adds up to 9.5 trillion kilometers in one year. Multiply that by 11 billion and that is how far these galaxies are, mind boggling isn’t it?
Some amazing pictures have been released at the occasion of Hubble’s anniversary, pictures of galaxies, constellations, gas and dust clouds, planets and more. The pictures are beyond imagination with incredible colour palettes and lighting effects. This is lighting at its purest form I feel. To us human beings, the Universe exists because of light. We would have no perception of what it is if not for the images of light that reaches our eyes. There is of course a whole other world out there beyond the visible spectrum, but hard to imagine as we can’t see it.
I have always had an interest in space and space travel and in my younger years even aspired to become an astronaut. I still have all the news clips and magazine articles of the first moon landing. It is inspiring to know how we can defy the odds and develop technologies that allow us to create and achieve beyond our dreams. It is inspiring that it involves lighting.
The celebration of the Hubble telescope is therefore also a celebration of light, even though light years away 🙂
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