Visions of the Universe: Stars to Microbes

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"We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself."
Carl Sagan
Will we extend life into space before a catastrophe stops us permanently? Those going into space will be impelled by an exploratory urge. But their choices will have epochal consequences. Once the threshold is crossed when there is a self-sustaining level of life in space, then lifes long-range future will be secure irrespective of any of the risks on Earth (with the single exception of the catastrophic destruction of space itself). Will this happen before our technical civilisation disintegrates, leaving this as a might-have-been? Will the self-sustaining space communities be established before a catastrophe sets back the prospect of any such enterprise, perhaps foreclosing it for ever? We live at what could be a defining moment for the cosmos, not just for our Earth.
The colonization of space is an evolutionary step similar to the colonization of land This would be as epochal an evolutionary transition as that which led to land-based life on Earth. But it could still be just the beginning of cosmic evolution.
The enormous potential of future life is dependent on our actions today The first aquatic creatures crawled onto dry land in the Silurian era, more than three hundred million years ago. They may have been unprepossessing brutes, but had they been clobbered, the evolution of land-based fauna would have been jeopardised. Likewise, the post-human potential is so immense that not even the most misanthropic amongst us would countenance its being foreclosed by human actions.
The rarer life is, the more significant Earthlife becomes But it could turn out that the odds are heavily stacked against the emergence of life, so that our biosphere is the unique abode of intelligent and self-aware life within our Galaxy. Our small Earths fate would then have a significance that was truly cosmic
Sir Martin Rees
...there are more microbes in the ocean than stars in the universe. How important are the microbes to the ocean ecosystem, and ultimately to us?
They produce every other molecule of oxygen that we breathe, and the entire chemistry of the planet is essentially created by microbes--basically they rule the world.
The human body is built on an old form, out of parts that once did very different things. So take a moment to pause and sit on your coccyx, the bone that was once a tail. Roll your ankles, each of which once connected a front leg to a paw. Revel not in who you are but who you were. It is, after all, amazing what evolution has made out of bits and pieces. Nor are we in any way alone or unique. Each plant, animal and fungus carries its own consequences of life's improvisational genius.
-source Smithsonian.com
Turn your churches into halls of science and devote your leisure day to the study of your own bodies, the analysis of your minds, and the examination of the fair world which extends around you.
Frances Wright

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Those were some very cool pictures !

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the hourglass supernova is absolutely amazing