• doug
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    3 days ago

    I always thought this one was more haunting.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      That one will stick with me a for a long time. Something about it reminds me of some cosmic perspective of our cold, lonely universe, the vast, VAST fucking stretch of time those rocks and gravel have drifted through boggles the mind. Utter darkness, glittering stars, cold infinity in all directions for billions of years.

      • Donkter@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        To that point, I think it’s also unnerving how natural it is. This isn’t some alien world. I could go to the Mojave and walk around for 5 minutes to find a photo identical to this. Earth is indistinguishable to one of these rocks hurtling through space, there’s just something growing on it very briefly.

        • ameancow@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Yes, but I still think there is something more haunting about a landscape that you know hasn’t been touched by anything since maybe before Earth existed, every dust-grain on that surface has sat there for millions and millions of years without being disturbed by so much as starlight. And it will continue to hurtle through space undisturbed long after we’re all gone.

    • Hex [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      Is it weird that that picture is somehow shocking to me? Like intellectually I know that asteroids are just rocks flying through space, but they always had some sort of “specialness” to them that this picture strips away. It really is just a rough hunk of whatever the fuck flying through space at mach jesus

      • doug
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        3 days ago

        Yeah I felt the same way when I saw it. Just kinda sobering, really. I’m learning Unreal Engine right now for work but I kinda wanna make an experience of a VR “game” for myself where you’re just on a slowly-rotating rock in the void of space, like a stranded astronaut.

        • YoiksAndAway@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          I played a C64 game where you had missions to visit different spots in the solar system. The space travel part wasn’t realistic, but the scale of the solar system was. I remember having to accelerate to high speeds to cover the distance between objects, then decelerate rapidly to avoid zipping past them. I’m still proud of the fact that I was able to land on Phobos. I think I landed on Ceres, too.

    • Frozengyro@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Something beautifully haunting about seeing the endless abyss from another rock traveling the cosmos.

    • addie@feddit.uk
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      3 days ago

      Hey! The images of Ryugu that were taken from Hayabusa2. What a sad lonely rock that place is - a loose collection of boulders in an endless orbit, in which it will probably continue without further interaction from now until the end of time. You could sneak a few ghosts onto that place, right enough, and no-one would notice.