An interesting CG clip from Discovery’s Miracle Earth depicting our destruction via giant asteroid set to Pink Floyd’s Great Gig In The Sky. The song is apt for many reasons, not the least of which being that the vocalist sounds like she is actually being burned alive and/or crushed by a giant asteroid. But I’m a sucker for that 70’s bass sound so I can’t hate. It’s actually a pretty sad video to watch, and the final sentence of the titles is rather ominous. Although 6 events in 4.55 billion years isn’t really much to worry about considering the cosmic blink of an eye humanity has occupied in the universal timeline. Also, I am pretty sure you don’t really notice/care when you’re instantly vaporized, you just turn to vapor, and so does your Macbook Pro.
Thanks Scott, real nice way for me to start the day. It’s raining outside as well.
Seriously, it’s an emotional video to watch (perhaps more down to Pink Floyd than the animators). Love all that space stuff. Humans really need to get their butt’s in gear and start finding a way off this planet … bring on the next Cold War – that’ll give the space program the boost it needs! 😉
ed-
yeah, a bit macabre, but I found myself rather moved by the prospect of our earth being obliterated and what a colossal waste that would be. of course, universal mechanics don’t really care much about the things that we hold dear or think are beautiful, they just keep on cranking away in spite of us all.
I read somewhere that given enough warning, by simply painting objects (that we know are on course to hit us) black we can change their course. Apparently some huge asteroid is going to hit us in 2880 and that’s the plan: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/asteroid_deflection_020404.html . It all seems moot though, at the rate we’re going this place is going to be a desert or an iceberg by then anyways. or we’ll have thought helmets and drive space cars that run on water. one of the those.
I always liked the post-apocalyptic aesthetic.
What better excuse to put black war paint on oneself and drive in a dune buggy around the scorched barren wastelands Mad Max style.
Interesting article. Thanks again Scott. I can’t get enough of space ‘stuff’ at the moment for some reason (interestingly, when reading about space, Stanley Kubrick and 2001 gets mentioned ALL the time)
Of course, the universe is entirely without conscience, something which a lot of people find hard to imagine. Probably myself included if I really think about it. There’s a theory called Fermi’s Paradox which explains that perhaps there isn’t any other advanced life out there (because if there was, we would of heard/seen it by now). If this is the case, then humanity might be the only hope for the entire universe! IF that is the case, then the future looks pretty bleak.
I found a site called Space Collective which, aside from the beautiful design, has some amazing short videos. If I found it here, then apologies for reposting, but here’s the link anywho: http://spacecollective.org/
That’s enough from me I think
I love stuff like this. If you ever get a chance, pick up a book called A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It’s an amazing read and deals with theories like the asteroid hitting the earth, what would happen if Yellowstone blew up, why we have only visited the Mariana Trench once and all sorts of random tidbits and facts.
My father is an amateur astronomer so when I go home to visit, he likes to show me Jupiter’s moons and red spot along with crazy far galaxies out in the universe.
I’ve always enjoyed this visual comparison of the planets to some of the stars out there:
http://www.sbau.org/planets.htm
Now I’m going to go listen to some Ray Lynch.
I didn’t really need such grim article in such beautiful sunny morning. I had too dark thoughts lately while listening to “Dark Knight” soundtrack. Those thoughts were about… we don’t need any asteroid we shall wipe ourselves out in nuclear war.
Oh man- I am about to listen to “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven, have a good breakfast and this day will be beautiful!
amazing compatibility of song and video motion.
really inspired.
“so so sad end of the days..”
Holy shit, we’re all gonna die
Beamer – we’re gonna live forever. hell yeah!
interesting that Japan was the first country shown to be thrown up into orbit…
You’d think after getting plastered by a massive meteor 6 times, life on earth would take a hint and just give up already.
You know, as morbid as it sounds, if I could watch this actually happen safely…what a sight to see…..
It these kinds of things that make me enjoy life as much as I can since our existence is not even a blink in the universal timeline.
Just sitting around, I decided to check out some of your past posts that I missed, and it’s sort of odd seeing this massive destructive force set to Great Gig in the Sky, mainly because Rick Wright, who wrote Great Gig in the Sky died yesterday from life long battle with cancer.
It’s a sad thought to know that there will never be a complete Floyd performance again.