“We are poised at the edge of a new world, vaster than we could have ever imagined. When my parents went to school, they were taught that the universe we inhabited was the size of a single galaxy. It was thought we might one day discover ‘another’ galaxy- perhaps several. A few decades later we aimed our Hubble telescope on a part of the night sky that was dark and empty space and gazed with wonderment at thousands of galaxies dancing in one tiny aperture. And as we peered into the microcosm our gaze penetrated from atom to electron to quark until we plunged into a quantum foam of virtual particles popping into and out of existence. The foundational tenets of physics quiver at these mysterious thresholds. The universe is immeasurably more immense, mysterious and magnificent than we could have dreamed.”
Words and Image by Dana Lynne Andersen