Putting things into perspective....

[TerryH]

Remember as a kid, the "WHOLE WIDE WORLD" was about the biggest thing you could imagine?


Then, as we got a little older, we realized there are bigger things out there...



And at some point we realized things beyond our sun.



Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky. It is more than 1,000 light years from Earth.

Now dwell on this picture. Ultra deep space infra-red photo by Hubbel of entire galaxies billions of light years away.


Kind of humbling when we consider the amount of small stuff we sweat about. Keep life in perspective. Have fun!

[scottmandue]

Add to that it is predicted that the earth is somewhere around 4.5 billion years old and the universe 10 to 15 billion and if we are lucky we as individuals might be around 100 years... most likely less.

Where is my gun?

[on-ramp]

excellent post! kinda makes you see the "big picture" btw, the sun is bigger than I thought.

[Aerkuld]

Interesting to put things into perspective like this.
I don't know about the Sun, I had no idea Uranus was so big.

[on-ramp]

Holy Antares!!

[scottmandue]

***insert obligatory Uranus joke here***

[sammyg2]

Klingons, captain's log

[BRPORSCHE]

Takes light 8 minutes to travel the distance from the Sun to the Earth...at 2.9979 m/s/s!

[red-beard]

[on-ramp]

We are insignificant in the universe. just enjoy the time you have walking around. then that's it. one day it's all over.

[fingpilot]

I thought this was going to be another 'My watch is bigger than your watch' thread.... you know feet and thumb sizes and all....

[Hugh R]

Originally posted by BRPORSCHE
Takes light 8 minutes to travel the distance from the Sun to the Earth...at 2.9979 m/s/s!

I don't think its m/s/s, that would imply its accelerating, which I don't believe it is. But it is 186,000 miles/sec.

[TechnoViking]

Edit: From Wired Magazine

[M.D. Holloway]

Wow, and to think. I am the greatest thing in the entire universe! I gonna ask for a raise come Monday!!!

[red-beard]

OK, Zaphod, put the drink down

[widebody911]

Has anyone seen the plans for the hyperspace bypass?

[trekkor]

I like the opening pictures.
Really cool.


KT

[Paul K]

Great post. I remember as kid being amazed that if you had a space rocket that would never run out of fuel, and you went straight up- and didn't hit anything- you'd just keep going. For ever. That was before my vocabulary included the word 'infinity'...

[Rick Lee]

Love these scales. Somewhere online there's a page that explains it in terms of grains of sand in a sandbox. The Milky Way has about as many stars as a 20' diameter sandbox has grains of sand. The Earth is totally insignificant even in that one. And then picture that one sandbox surround by billions of others, spaced about two miles from each other. And that's how insignificant our own galaxy is. To think we're special is just the most arrogant notion I've ever heard of.

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by Paul K
Great post. I remember as kid being amazed that if you had a space rocket that would never run out of fuel, and you went straight up- and didn't hit anything- you'd just keep going. For ever. That was before my vocabulary included the word 'infinity'...

forever, huh? how do you know that sooner or later you won't hit a brick wall?

does the universe stretch out in every direction into infinity , ie. there is no end?