We live on one simple planet, Earth. That planet is about 12,712 kilometers in diameter from pole to pole. The entire human species is just a speck on the face of this planet. That planet is part of a solar system made up of 8 other planets which revolve around an average star that we call the sun. Our solar system is approximately 287.46 billion kilometers in diameter. Just to give you some perspective on our small little tucked away corner of the universe, the Voyager 1 probe was launched from earth on September 5, 1977 and has been traveling ever since. The total mission duration is about 36 and a half years. During this time, the probe has traveled at a velocity of 17 kilometers every second (that's 11 miles every second). As of August 25, 2012, the voyager finally left our solar system and ventured into interstellar space. That is the scope of our solar system. Let's move out a little more and see how small this massive solar system really is.
Our solar system joins the community of anywhere from tens of billions, to hundreds of billions of other solar systems within our galaxy, the milky way. We are not completely sure how many solar systems there are, but we know that there are around 200 billion stars like our sun in the milky way, and a portion of those do have their own solar systems. So just how big is this galaxy that our solar system resides in? The milky way galaxy is roughly one hundred thousand light years in diameter. So if you were traveling at the speed of light (299,792,458 meters per second), it would take you 100,000 years to go from one side to the other. How far is that in kilometers? The milky way galaxy is 946,073,047,258,080,100 kilometers in diameter. Let that number sink in. Go ahead, I'll wait here. Of course, we live in a larger galaxy. The size of an average/dwarf galaxy is in the ballpark of ten to twenty thousand light years, which is still anywhere from 94,607,304,725,808,000 to 189,214,609,451,616,000 kilometers. Still breathtaking to say the least!
So how many of these galaxies are there in our universe? Well, that's a difficult question. Best estimates that astronomers have are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. Most would say around 170 billion different galaxies in the universe. Not only that, but each of these galaxies is separated by vast distances larger than the galaxies themselves. I think my brain is starting to hurt. So I suppose that leads us to the big question, about how vast and wide is the entire observable universe? The answer, the observable universe is currently estimated to have a diameter of ninety three billion (93,000,000,000) light years. Just for fun, how many kilometers is that? That would be about 879,847,933,950,014,500,000,000 kilometers. Yep, my brain hurts trying to even comprehend a distance that large. This means that to travel from one side of the universe to the other, it would take you ninety three billion years traveling at the speed of light to get there.
How amazingly insignificant we are to this universe. To think otherwise, I can't conceive as anything but narcissism in the highest degree.
Our solar system joins the community of anywhere from tens of billions, to hundreds of billions of other solar systems within our galaxy, the milky way. We are not completely sure how many solar systems there are, but we know that there are around 200 billion stars like our sun in the milky way, and a portion of those do have their own solar systems. So just how big is this galaxy that our solar system resides in? The milky way galaxy is roughly one hundred thousand light years in diameter. So if you were traveling at the speed of light (299,792,458 meters per second), it would take you 100,000 years to go from one side to the other. How far is that in kilometers? The milky way galaxy is 946,073,047,258,080,100 kilometers in diameter. Let that number sink in. Go ahead, I'll wait here. Of course, we live in a larger galaxy. The size of an average/dwarf galaxy is in the ballpark of ten to twenty thousand light years, which is still anywhere from 94,607,304,725,808,000 to 189,214,609,451,616,000 kilometers. Still breathtaking to say the least!
So how many of these galaxies are there in our universe? Well, that's a difficult question. Best estimates that astronomers have are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. Most would say around 170 billion different galaxies in the universe. Not only that, but each of these galaxies is separated by vast distances larger than the galaxies themselves. I think my brain is starting to hurt. So I suppose that leads us to the big question, about how vast and wide is the entire observable universe? The answer, the observable universe is currently estimated to have a diameter of ninety three billion (93,000,000,000) light years. Just for fun, how many kilometers is that? That would be about 879,847,933,950,014,500,000,000 kilometers. Yep, my brain hurts trying to even comprehend a distance that large. This means that to travel from one side of the universe to the other, it would take you ninety three billion years traveling at the speed of light to get there.
How amazingly insignificant we are to this universe. To think otherwise, I can't conceive as anything but narcissism in the highest degree.
Since when is significance determined exclusively by size?
ReplyDeleteDefine what you mean by significance. I used the term "insignificant" in the sense of how small our reach into this vast space actually is and how little of an impact on the universe we really have. Like an atom in an ocean, how much significance can it really have within that scope? Yet at the atomic level, the atom becomes much more important. In the same vein, in the scope of the universe we are quite insignificant. Yet at the planet, continent, or country level we become much more important.
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