                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2022 December 4

                            Video: Powers of Ten
        Video Credit & Copyright: Charles & Ray Eames (Eames Office)

   Explanation: How different does the universe look on very small scales?
   On very large scales? The most famous short science film of its
   generation gives breathtaking comparisons. That film, Powers of Ten,
   originally created in the 1960s, has been officially posted to YouTube
   and embedded here. From a picnic blanket near Chicago out past the
   Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, every ten seconds the film zooms out to show
   a square a factor of ten times larger on each side. The 9-minute video
   then reverses, zooming back in a factor of ten every two seconds and
   ends up inside a single proton. The Powers of Ten sequence is actually
   based on the book Cosmic View by Kees Boeke in 1957, as is a similar
   but mostly animated film Cosmic Zoom that was also created in the late
   1960s. The changing perspectives are so enthralling and educational
   that sections have been recreated using more modern computerized
   techniques, including the first few minutes of the movie Contact. Ray
   and husband Charles Eames, the film's creators, were known as quite
   visionary spirits and even invented their own popular chair.

                   Tomorrow's picture: seven sister stars
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

