!VAR HAGENDOORN

The Known Universe In HD

The Powers of Ten (1977) was originally a short documentary film written and directed by Ray and Charles Eames. You can watch the original here. In 1982 it was made into a book. As a nerdy little boy I of course got a copy of the book.

As part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, The American Museum of Natural History has created sort of an updated version, zooming out from a mountain range in the Himalayas all the way to the outer edges of the universe. It is based on a digital map of the universe maintained by the Hayden Planetarium. Watch it in HD in full screen.

It's truly awesome and it made me feel small and insignificant. Like many people I have always been fascinated by the vast scale of the universe. Some of my most sublime experiences include standing on top of a mountain in Utah and Rajasthan, India in the middle of the night, in total darkness and just looking up at the sky.

I guess the original inhabitants of Easter Island must have felt the same. The awesome photo is by Stéphane Guisard and part of a series.