I often think that the
infinity of universe blocks us human from fully understanding its secrets. When
I searched this opinion online today, I also got so many similar arguments,
some of which are even from top scientists. For instance, in one article I read
about the claim of President of the Royal Society Lord Rees—“the limitations of
the human brain mean some of the biggest mysteries of the universe may never be
solved.” (dailymail.co) However, just because of the unknown properties and its
infinite mystery are human’s curiosity and motivation stimulated towards
exploring it. Therefore, tons of artworks are created as a way of exactly
representing human beings’ misunderstandings, doubt, conjectures, and interest in
the universe in the process of their space exploration.
In my opinion, human’s study
of outer space starts from the stars above their heads. Even in prehistory
period, our ancestors were amazed by those shining stars and tried to note them
through painting or carving. According to Wikipedia, “the oldest known star
chart may be a carved ivory Mammoth tusk [which] is 32,500 years old and has a
carving that resembles the constellation Orion.” (Wikipedia.com) It is indeed fantastic
that the human of ten thousands of years ago can create such things without advanced
science and technology, and it is interestingly proven that artworks driven by human’s
curiosity naturally shows up long ago. With deeper understanding of the outer
space and the universe we live in, not only people’s artworks quantity
increases but also the art type forms a wide variety. For instance, the study
of constellation Orion results in various exquisite manuscript star chats, and
also great many mythological works in different cultures.
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| A celestial map from the 17th century, by the Dutch cartographer Frederik de Wit |
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| Legends and Myths works from different cultures |
Among all the art related
with space, I personally consider TV dramas and movies as the most influencing
ones for modern people. Actually, the space travel sci-fi movies have the most
attractive topic for the public nowadays, illustrated simply by the global box
office. Statistics shows that “just last year, the hard science hyper-realistic
Gravity blew audiences’ minds and pulled down a heavy $716 million in global
receipts.” (Hughes) Furthermore, the all time famous series star wars and star
trek are so popular that the fond of them are beyond nationality and race.
They, as both entertainment and visual arts, impress several generations of
people with great memory.
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| Sci-fi Movie of space travel topic has become one of the most successful entertaining way for the audience |
P.S. Interestingly, the series
of Google doodles today are just to honor the first American woman astronaut in
space, Sally Ride, who “remains the youngest American astronaut to have
travelled to space, having done so at the age of 32.” (Wikipeida.com) I am surprised
to find that even though she graduated from Stanford as a physics PhD, she
actually transferred to Stanford in her junior year after studying physics from
UCLA. “As the first American woman in space, Sally did not just break the
stratospheric glass ceiling, she blasted through it,” said President Obama. (Regan)
Sally’s works really inspire young people like us in our STEM work.
Reference:
"Limitations of Human
Brain Mean We May Never Understand the Secrets of Universe, Says Britain's Top
Scientist." DailyMail.com. 13 June 2010. Web.
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1286257/Limitations-human-brain-mean-understand-secrets-universe.html>.
"Constellation."
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation>.
"Sally Ride."
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride>.
Regan, Helen. "Google
Doodle Honors First American Woman in Space." Time. Time. Tue. 25 May
2015.
<http://time.com/3895806/sally-ride-google-doodle-astronaut-nasa-first-woman-space/>.
Hughes, Mark. "Top 10
Best Space Travel Films Of All Time." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 8 Nov.
2014. Web.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2014/11/08/top-10-best-space-travel-films-of-all-time/>.
It was interesting which you mentioned the age of the oldest star, I also would like to add what I read from another article that; the oldest image of a star pattern, that was of the famous constellation of Orion has been recognised on an ivory tablet some 32,500 years old as you said. This tiny sliver of mammoth tusk contains a carving of a man-like figure with arms and legs outstretched in the same pose as the stars of Orion.
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