People always talk about how beautiful and mystifying a tropical forest is. Largely untouched by human hands, the animals and plant life live together in overwhelming chaotic harmony, and collectively, human beings are just starting to understand how it all coexists. The same mystery is true for large parts of the ocean where vibrant and colorful schools of fish hide among stunning coral reefs. There are large creatures miles below the surface that no one has ever even laid eyes on before. It’s a whole lot more overwhelming than the neat order of strip malls most of us drive past everyday, but when compared against the enormous wonder of space, it’s a boring and simple joke.
There is no way to understand how large and how beautiful space is. Earth is nothing more than a drop in its giant bucket. From exploding stars to the formation of galaxies to the birth of life forms, chances are something more visually stunning than anything we’ve ever seen before is happening every single second. Because of our technological limitations, we aren’t able to see an overwhelming majority of it, but every once in a while, we get lucky enough to see a small little sliver.
Such is the case with the above video. Captured by the ALMA radio telescope, the clip, which is one large picture progressively being zoomed in, depicts the actual moment a star roughly 1,400 light-years away was born. During the process, material was shot out at 84,477 miles per hour, as per Space.com. When it crashed into surrounding gas, it all started glowing in that vibrant hue. The instant it happened was caught by ALMA’s telescope, and scientists from around the world are currently studying the aftereffects. There is great hope we will be able to learn a lot about how the sun was formed by watching as the star, currently named Herbig-Haro 46/47, as it propels more material in different directions, but only time will tell how valuable the information will be.
The ALMA telescope cost more than $1.3 billion to build and features more than sixty smaller telescopes that combine together to create the most powerful lens in the world. It was jointly funded by countries from North America, Asia and Europe, and it has proven to be one of the most important scientific tools we have. It can see through gas and dust, and ideally, it will gift the world even more images every bit as eye-catching and overwhelming as this one.
Here’s to hoping this video is able to renew society’s collective interest in space travel and convince politicians there are better things to skimp on than the space program.
