TAKE YOURSELF OUT TO A FIELD some evening after everyone else is asleep. Listen to the migrant birds whisking past in the dark; listen to the creaking and settling of the world. Think about the teeming, microscopic worlds beneath your shoes—the continents of soil, the galaxies of bacteria. Then lift your face up.

The night sky is the coolest Advent calendar imaginable: it is composed of an infinite number of doors. Open one and find ten thousand galaxies hiding behind it, streaming away at hundreds of miles per second. Open another, and another. You gaze up into history; you stare into the limits of your own understanding. The past flies toward you at the speed of light. Why are you here? Why are the stars there? Is it even remotely possible that our one, tiny, eggshell world is the only one encrusted with life?

There is a great video of the Hubble Deep Field here
http://www.smirkingloon.com/video/the_hubble_deep_field.php

Excellent clip!

As usual, invictus, your clips always intrigue my thoughts thank you once again

Glad you liked it k9riley, it was one of the best articles I've read in recent weeks. I wish I could clip more of it.