A solar flare captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory
One has grown up acutely aware that we live in a mediocre corner of the universe inside a mediocre galaxy, orbiting a mediocre star on a mediocre planet. I can go tighter in my deconstruction but I am sure you get the point. By the time I bring it down to you and I you would feel so utterly infinitesimal that you might lose interest in reading this post. And that I would not want.
In the larger picture of our galaxy, let alone the universe, the sun is not regarded as a particularly brilliant star. In Hollywood parlance it is not an A-lister. It is probably a B or a C lister. And yet it is the fountainhead of everything we are, including the unsolicited grandiose cynicism that I display here from time to time.
It has been a lifelong struggle for me to cultivate an anthropocentric view of the world and the universe. So when I saw the stunning images of the sun sent by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) I felt overcome with a wave of futility and inconsequentiality yet again. The idea that there is a little spot on the sun the size of the earth should be a sobering reminder to all those on this planet who go around with a sense of purpose, earnestness, entitlement and power that they are really inconsequential even within the fact that our planetary system is so mediocre and generally inconsequential.
It is fascinating to refresh one’s consciousness from time to time and recognize that at the heart of everything we as sentient beings do is a star in a plasmatic state (meaning gaseous state) burning at temperatures that we cannot conceive of. The SDO is an extraordinary achievement on the human scale, especially because it brings us so close to our own smallness.
If I have spoilt your Friday, just look at this brief video.