r/interesting • u/SwimmerLeather5333 • 15h ago

NATURE NASA released the the clearest images of Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover has sent back its latest images from the Martian surface, giving us another incredibly detailed look at the rocks, terrain and landscape of a world millions of miles away. The rover continues to explore Mars while sending new images and science back to Earth.

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u/ptmtobi 12h ago

Yea those videos always make me notice how crazy it actually is to witness earth in the first place. I mean we are yet another random planet formed from a giant cloud, flying through the vastness of the universe. We are that one planet millions of kilometers away from another perspective, we just happened to witness this one first-hand, which is insane to me.

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u/Thaetos 11h ago

Likely someone out there from another earth-like planet spotted our planet and is wondering what life would be like here. We are the aliens too, in the perspective of anyone else out there.

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u/Quick-Eye-6175 7h ago

I have been having a kind of scary thought lately. What if we ARE alone? I know the math for that doesn’t make sense but we still don’t have any evidence that says we aren’t alone…

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u/Fun-Benefit116 7h ago

Well, you're having the same thought that millions of people have been having for centuries. So you aren't alone...in that respect lol.

It's like that famous quote from Michael Scott Arthur C. Clarke: "We either are or aren't alone in the universe. And both possibilities are equally terrifying".

Or something like that.

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u/Quick-Eye-6175 6h ago

Indeed, both scenarios are terrifying.

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u/oh-shit-oh-fuck 6h ago

For all intents and purposes we are alone unless there's some crazy FTL tech to discover.

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u/Anal_Recidivist 6h ago

It does make sense. We’ve looked pretty far into space, relatively speaking. We’ve found nothing that even marginally resembles earth.

add in the lunacy of our evolution all the way to now, including several close calls in the Cold War. It’s exceedingly likely there are not beings out there like us and even less likely they’re more advanced.

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u/OperatorERROR0919 5h ago edited 5h ago

That's like assuming that you are alone on Earth just because you can't see anyone out your window. Also, we have found tons of planets that are very similar to Earth, in terms of mass, composition, and proximity to their respective stars. We haven't confirmed liquid water on any of them, but that's because we are essentially trying to meticulously examine grains of sand on the ground through a pair of binoculars from the top of the Empire State Building. Even if life on a planet is one in one billion, or even one in one trillion, there are billions of stars in the galaxy and trillions of galaxies in the known universe. The chances of us being truly alone are about as close to zero as anything could ever possibly be. Not that we'll ever see them. I highly doubt humanity will ever manage to leave our solar system, at least with any particular destination in mind.

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u/ptmtobi 5h ago

Not entirely true, we've already found more than 60 habitable exoplanets like TRAPPIST-1e, Proxima Centauri b, TOI-700d, Kepler-442b, LHS 1140 b, etc. and we know that there have to be an incredibly high amount of other planets within their respective habitable zones out there.

The furthest thing we've sent so far is voyager 1 which on an astronomical scale barely just left the solar system which is astronomically far away from any other solar system, let alone habitable exoplanets, let alone habitable exoplanets with intelligent life, let alone habitable exoplanets with civilizations that haven't gone extinct already. If we're struggling with the scale of the universe and the strength of our signals, how can we expect them not to? Aside from how even light takes so long for the distances we're talking about here.

The ingredients of life on earth are the most common resources in the universe (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, iron,...), with hundrets of billions of stars in our galaxy and trillions of galaxies out there it would be ridiculous to suggest we're alone based on our inability to see or contact anyone.

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u/Living_Reporter_7084 6h ago

And yet the truth is out there too.

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u/19d_b87 6h ago

Okay, Mulder. /s

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u/LopsidedAirlines 10h ago

Those videos make me realise how uninteresting and not shocking the rest of the near universe is contrary to how much we hyped it up all this time

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u/Competitive-Pie-5302 9h ago

The more I see of the universe the more precious Earth seems to become.

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u/sw04ca 6h ago

"He captured strange and distant worlds in greater detail than ever before. They were beautiful, magnificent... full of awe and wonder. But beneath their sublime surfaces... there was nothing. No love or hate. No light or dark. He could only see what was not there... and missed what was right in front of him."

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u/MissSteak 8h ago

And how shocking our own planet actually is. What do you mean theres a lifeform that builds megacities?

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u/crambeaux 7h ago

That the rules we have learned on earth apply throughout the universe is quite reassuring. It’s more that earth is exceptional, not that other planets are necessarily.

I still find it thrilling though. Thrilling banality.

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u/ElectronicCobbler522 7h ago

And I'm going to school tomorrow lmaoooooo😭😭😭😭🫩🫩🫩🫩. Absurd

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u/_barat_ 11h ago

For me insane is that so many random things have had to happen to allow us to witness this image on the Reddit. Like there's no planet with inteligent life (as we understand it) within sane amount of light years round us and it happened for us.
The only thing that makes me sad is that probably I wont be living long enough to see a real "breakthrough" moment for our civilization like FTL or a confirmed inteligent life somewhere there.

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u/MissSteak 8h ago

Im kind of the mind that we will never be able to confirmed intelligent life somewhere that is not Earth. The probability is just so small and the universe is sooooooooo vast. Even in 10,000 years when we potentially reach FTL travel, Im not sure that we would be able to explore the whole of Milky Way, let alone leave it... the scope of it all is just so bonkers, which makes me appreciate the life we have here much more

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u/Fun-Benefit116 6h ago edited 6h ago

Even in 10,000 years when we potentially reach FTL travel

I don't think you comprehend how long 10,000 years is. Literally ALL of modern human history including the invention (or discovery) of the largest religions in the world and everything (good and bad) to ever come from them, all technological inventions, absolutely everything we know of as the modern human civilization has occurred in about 2,000 years. And that's starting from nothing as far as technology is concerned.

I genuinely don't think it's possible for a person to comprehend how long 10,000 years is from now, and what technology mankind will have (if we survive till then without destroying ourselves). I mean, you're talking about the year 12,026. The world, our solar system, and our galaxy are likely to be unrecognizable by then. With technologies that mankind literally can't even imagine today. I mean, 10,000 years ago from today humans were living in caves and living as Hunter gatherers. They didn't even know how to farm yet. They wouldn't learn how to write for another like 6,000 years. And we've gone from that to literally landing people on the moon, landing camera and machines on other planets. And to top it off, most of that technology came in the last 1,000 years alone.

My point being, I think you are severely underestimating what humans can achieve in a period as insanely long as 10,000 years.

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u/MissSteak 6h ago

I am aware of how long 10,000 years is, thank you for putting it into perspective.

What I believe tho is, that even that amount of time wont be enough for us to explore even a fragment of the Milky Way. Like, truly explore. Visit nearby stars and their planets. I think youre overestimating the technological advances we will make in this time. Im aware this statement might seem bizarre with all the technological advances we are making in a short period of time, but I also believe we will begin to stagnate at some point. Theres only so many resources we can extrapolate.

For context - the nearest star to us is about 4.5 light years away. The Sun is 8 light minutes away from us - which currently takes around 3 months to actually traverse. Even if we knew how to travel with speed of light - which we might not ever accomplish - it would take 4 years to just get to the nearest star. The distances are so hugely incomprehensible, that I have serious doubts we will ever find anything out there.

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u/throw_away1049 6h ago

I'm sure eventually someone will notice a pack of Star Whales, study their migration patterns, and develop hyperspace tech for intergalactic travel.

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u/stationery-bunny 11h ago

Earth is incredible as well! just so full of life. If I was on Mars I'd be so jealous of the people who get to be on Earth.

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u/chromewindow 9h ago

Heaven on Earth, we just don’t appreciate it enough

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u/OConnah 8h ago

If you visited this place in Nevada, you’d be so thankful when you got home

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u/LongLongMan_TM 9h ago

Or terrified. It's tons of things that you're unfamiliar with.

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u/stationery-bunny 9h ago

I'm terrified already sometimes 😅

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u/Hannonymous07 10h ago

What a nice thought

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u/Forward-Evidence-756 7h ago

Right?? It’s honestly surreal realizing we’re just tiny passengers on this little planet, somehow conscious enough to appreciate how beautiful and bizarre the whole thing is..