The Universe is big. Like, REALLY big.

[Urzu 7]

How big is the universe? Far bigger than we can conceive. Want to really feel overwhelmed? Just look at how big our Solar System is. Our solar system is bigger than we can conceive.

Here is a very accurate, virtually to scale representation of the size of our solar system.

http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/...larsystem.html

Pro-tip: When scrolling over, you are going to want to press your scroll-wheel down and then move the cursor to the right to make scrolling much more bearable. Also, don't check this out at school or work. It'll take too long to do.


I encourage people to try and stay with this to the end. It'll give you some idea of just how big our solar system is.

Once you have a better understanding (but still incredibly vague) of just how big our solar system is, just remember that the solar system is an ABSOLUTELY TINY part of our galaxy, and that our galaxy is an ABSOLUTELY TINY part of the known universe (and we only have an idea of how big of the universe is up to a certain point; we don't really know just how big it is).

[Xefi]

just seeing how the Earth is like a "teeny tiny dot", I wonder how the human race see themselves
on that dot? we're pretty much invisible...lol.

I really would like to travel to another planet that is like our Earth one of these days...even
Mars would be nice once we can live there like that one show, Aria the animation. ^ ^

but yeah, the universe is much too big. and I did tried scrolling through in the link, but
it was just too long and tedious, I just mouse scroll it through. (so many teeny tiny planets) :P

[Akito Kinomoto]

Isn't it sad, Pluto?

[Urzu 7]

Originally Posted by Akito Kinomoto

Isn't it sad, Pluto?

And the real kicker is that eventually humanity was like "lol sorry Pluto, u ain't rly a planet!"

****

If you try to contemplate the distance of the sun to Pluto, you should keep in mind that the planets revolve around the sun, and that the full span of Pluto's orbit, from one point to another point 180 degrees later in orbit, would be all that distance scrolling to the right in addition to the same length in the opposite direction; to the left of the sun.

[Cosmic Eagle]

The real amazing thing is how folding a piece of paper in half 100+x gives you thickness = to the visible universe's size lol

[Marcus H.]

Try scrolling this while Haddaway's "What is Love?" plays on loop.

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by Akito Kinomoto

Isn't it sad, Pluto?

RIP Pluto. I'll always remember you as a planet.

[Chaos2Frozen]

Pluto is better off with the other icy bodies like Eris, that way it's no longer a black sheep of the family.

[Jan-Poo]

Now imagine a star whose diameter is bigger than the distance between the sun and Saturn.

Yes it exists

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Now imagine a star whose diameter is bigger than the distance between the sun and Saturn.

Yes it exists

That's why Sol is called a "dwarf" and UY Scuti is called a "supergiant".

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by Xefi

just seeing how the Earth is like a "teeny tiny dot", I wonder how the human race see themselves
on that dot? we're pretty much invisible...lol.

I really would like to travel to another planet that is like our Earth one of these days...even
Mars would be nice once we can live there like that one show, Aria the animation. ^ ^

but yeah, the universe is much too big. and I did tried scrolling through in the link, but
it was just too long and tedious, I just mouse scroll it through. (so many teeny tiny planets) :P

One of my fav quotes from Carl Sagan:

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

Spoiler:

[Ithekro]

Image via the Voyager probes of Earth, from many AU away.

[Tornado The Dragon]

good thread

[AnimeFan188]

The Universe Contains 10 to 20 Times More Galaxies
Than We Thought:

"A new study from a team of international astronomers, led by astrophysicists from
the University of Nottingham with support from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS),
has produced some astounding results: The universe contains at least two trillion
galaxies, 10 times more than the highest previous estimates. What's more, the new
study suggests that 90 percent of all galaxies are hidden from us, and only the
remaining 10 percent can be seen at all, even with our most powerful telescopes. The
paper detailing the study was published today in the Astrophysical Journal.

"We are missing the vast majority of galaxies because they are very faint and far
away," said Nottingham Astrophysics Professor Christopher Conselice in an RAS press
release. "The number of galaxies in the universe is a fundamental question in
astronomy, and it boggles the mind that over 90 percent of the galaxies in the cosmos
have yet to be studied. Who knows what interesting properties we will find when we
study these galaxies with the next generation of telescopes?""

See:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/spac...more-galaxies/


So, have we finally answered the question of the Universe's "missing mass"?

[Ithekro]

Brings a new definition to "deep space exploration".

[Ithekro]

In a large universe we have now seen this thing:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...cid=spartanntp

Reminds me of a Mon Calamari cruiser from Star Wars.

[AnimeFan188]

The star that's 'older than the universe':

"Astronomers are baffled by new measurements of the age of the universe which appear
to suggest it's younger than some of the stars it contains.

According to their best estimates, the universe is about 13.8 billion years old - but
there's a star relatively near to Earth, HD 140283, which appears to be 14.5 billion years
old.

"It's a riddle of cosmic proportions: how can the universe contain stars older than itself?"
physicist Robert Matthews wrote for The National, an English-language newspaper
published in UAE.

"That's the conundrum now facing astronomers trying to establish the age of the
universe - and its resolution could spark a scientific revolution."

See:

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world...-universe.html