We are living on a tiny life-bearing rock, an oasis, in a large, very large, and hostile desert called “Universe“. The universe is big, really big, in fact
Earth to scale
Some excerpts from the video:
As a person living on Earth, our planet feels pretty big. But, if you start to think about space and beyond, it will start to seem very small.
- The distance between the Earth and the Moon (384,400 km / 238,855 miles) can obtain about 30 Earths (the diameter of Earth is 12,742 km / 7,917.5 miles).
- From the surface of Mars, the Earth is only a tiny dot.
- Jupiter’s giant red spot (a huge storm) would completely swallow North America.
- 6 Earths could fit across Saturn’s rings.
- Despite being an average-sized star, the Sun is so large that 1.3 million Earths would fit inside of it. ACtually, 99.86% of the mass of our solar system is made up by the Sun.
- Our Sun is only one of 100-200 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. We can see only see around 4,000 of these stars in the sky.
- Our galaxy is in a supercluster of galaxies called “Laniakea”, which is home to our galaxy the Milky Way, and 100,000 other nearby galaxies, stretched out over 160 megaparsecs (520 million light-years).
Sources
- Laniakea Supercluster on Wikipedia
I am a software developer, a former road racing cyclist, and a science enthusiast. Also an animal lover! I write about the planet Earth and science on this website, ourplnt.com. I also take care of stray cats & dogs. Please consider supporting me on Patreon.
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