Just realized why those deep field photos hit different

Heard a kid at the Griffith Observatory say the Hubble deep field looks like 'static on an old TV' and it clicked that we are literally looking back 13 billion years through noise, anyone else feel small every time they zoom into those faint red dots?

2 comments

2 Comments

clark.lily27d ago

Stood there once with my cousin who kept trying to find shapes in the stars like a Rorschach test. He pointed at a smudge and swore it was a bear, but the telescope was pointed at a parking lot light. That moment made me realize how badly we want patterns in the noise, even when it's just glare. The deep field makes me feel the opposite, like I'm finally okay with not seeing the bear.

paulk8926d ago

That bit about being okay with not seeing the bear really hit me... my best friend had a similar thing happen at an observatory open house. She spent an hour squinting at this faint fuzzy patch, convinced it was a comet or something wild. Turned out the volunteer told her it was just a smudge on the lens from someone's finger. She laughed it off, but she still talks about how that moment made her stop forcing everything to mean something. Sometimes a smudge is just a smudge, and the deep field kind of celebrates that instead of fighting it.