The Scale of Things
Robin showed me this picture last night from the NASA website:
It's a photograph of a cluster of galaxies. Yes, GALAXIES.
Our home, the Milky Way, is 80,000 to 100,000 light-years in diameter. As a guide to the relative physical scale of the Milky Way, if the galaxy were reduced to 80 miles in diameter, the solar system would be a mere 2 mm (0.08 inches) in width (Wikipedia).
I read someplace that the human brain is incapable of comprehending this level of magnitude. Certainly MY little brain can't imagine it. But that's just our galaxy. The picture above shows hundreds of galaxies in just one part of the universe. Absolutely CRAZY.
I wish I could concentrate hard enough to internalize this.
What would happen if we could understand it? Would we spontaneously combust? Evolve at light speed? (Whatever that means.) Or would there suddenly be world peace?
I think I need to get a poster of this so that whenever I'm feeling like I have a problem too big for me, I can look at those galaxies and appreciate my insignificance.
It's a photograph of a cluster of galaxies. Yes, GALAXIES.
Our home, the Milky Way, is 80,000 to 100,000 light-years in diameter. As a guide to the relative physical scale of the Milky Way, if the galaxy were reduced to 80 miles in diameter, the solar system would be a mere 2 mm (0.08 inches) in width (Wikipedia).
I read someplace that the human brain is incapable of comprehending this level of magnitude. Certainly MY little brain can't imagine it. But that's just our galaxy. The picture above shows hundreds of galaxies in just one part of the universe. Absolutely CRAZY.
I wish I could concentrate hard enough to internalize this.
What would happen if we could understand it? Would we spontaneously combust? Evolve at light speed? (Whatever that means.) Or would there suddenly be world peace?
I think I need to get a poster of this so that whenever I'm feeling like I have a problem too big for me, I can look at those galaxies and appreciate my insignificance.
posted by Anne at 9:22 AM
1 Comments:
sweet. Scientist also now know that not only in the universe growing but the rate at which it is growing is getting faster! So if just the size is hard enough to wrap your mind around, it will be even bigger for the next generation of wonderers.
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