I've never really given this any thought whatsoever.
I've seen this presented in a smaller scale, but it's rather dazzling to see it presented this way.
I certainly thought this was enlightening. Didn't even realize we knew much beyond our sun ..
It's a big universe.
(Click to see bigger picture with our sun)
Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky.
It is more than 1000 light years away.
The universe is so vast it is not comprehensible by the human mind. It would be like an ant trying to understand the wonder of the internet? It can't be done.?
The universe humbles us as it should.
62 comments:
The universe is clearly comprehensible.
Where did you find these pics? I've seen them around the net for awhile now, and not always together with the sun pics. Sometimes these pics have arabic and chinese script on them, othertimes they're clean pics as posted here. I've always wanted to track these pics down, not just for accuracy, but maybe the point of origin has more interesting stuff on it.
Missing mandatory HUEG xbox controller.
But why do we have to be humbled?
I think that humanity is the epidemy of biology which is the perfection of chemistry.
I think consciousness, and the strides made by man are infinitely more impressive than really big, extremely hot, balls of gas.
Or senator Ted Stevens :)
It always fills me with awe when size and distance are put into a perspective that we can better understand.
One of the most powerful of these perspectives is 'The Pale Blue Dot' and Carl Sagan's eloquent description of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
aaron,
a long time ago, my father told me to look up at the stars on a clear night. he told me that some of the other stars are not yet visible because their light has not reached us yet...
i could not understand it at that time. but still looking at the night sky you really feel "small" in the larger scheme of things...
We're either alone in the universe, or we're not.
Either way, the implications are staggering.
Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001)
It should humble us, but sadly there is still so much hate in the world. And we as humans do at times (everyone's guilty of this) feels superior to everything else in the universe. These great pics hopefully should show that we are but a mere speck of dust in this infinite cosmic highway.
There's a video that illustrates what you've shown in these photos in a particularly awesome -- almost moving -- way. Here's the link .
holy nugets
meh
It don't matter how big the universe is. We still need to kill people for food, water, oil.... and cool tennis shoes.
"as it should." ?! is that a hint of creationism or is it just me?
Extremely interessant, thanks!
Wow Nice One
nice one
Very good comparison!
Human understanding of appropritate punctuation is clearly lacking.?!.!?
Good graphics, cool post
1000 lightyears away, you say?!
Think about that one for a while, will ya? =D
And yet billions believe there is a god that takes an interest in the smallest details of their lives. hmmm...
Wonderful illustrations.
Dude.
Whoa.
...size doesn’t matter.
I'd rather live on little earth than on Antares!
Wow, I never knew stars could get so big!
"The universe is so vast it is not comprehensible by the human mind"
What if the universe IS the human mind? Everything we know is (in the words of The Beatles) within you and without you. Whether or not what exists "out there" is "real" is debatable - it could all simply be a simulation generated by the supercomputer that is our brain... it would make sense given the strange goings on at the quantum level and given that we could potentially simulate a whole universe given a powerful enough computer (which our brains already are)...
Shame none of them are banana shaped really. Maybe you should include the largest banana shaped celestial body?
Thanks.
You have a few extra question marks at the end. GG.
Wow, hard to grasp indeed.
Love the visual representaions!
Una clara comparacion, y a simple vista nos podemos dar cuenta de q..... no somos naaada......
XD
Everything here is a tiny, tiny fraction of our own galaxy. which is a hundred thousand light-years from edge to edge and contains billions of stars. Think of Antares as one atom in a hamburger. Now think of billions of hamburgers stretching out fourteen billion light years. Now you have an idea how insignificant your worries are.
He-Man sure has alot of responsibility!
Very cool! I'm amazed and humbled. Thanks for the great post!
Addendum to previous comment: this photo (http://press.ucsc.edu/text.asp?pid=939) shows about 10,000 galaxies, each of which contains a few billion stars. Even the largest and brightest stars, like Antares, is too miniscule to be seen, even in our nearest neighboring galaxy.
These are awesome! Does anyone have a link to higher resolution images?
Um, the word you are looking for is "epitome", not "epidemy".
"Didn't even realize we knew much beyond our sun" -- I think this comment highlights the failure of science education.
It's a shame that Venus is always depicted like some kind of red, splotchy thing when all the other planets are shown as they would actually appear if you were looking at them.
What's wrong with just making it look.. like it looks?
@ Birgir Rasmussen
Yes, 1000 lightyears away...why do we need to think about it?
The distance you can travel in 1000 years if travelling at the speed of light.
Or have I missed something?
God created the Universe in 6 days for us. 6000 years ago.
(I wonder why people take this still seriously.)
its amazing .........the engma of universe.....from where u collect this....extradonary comapre of planets...
The universe is clearly not comprehensible.
These images first appeared online (as far as I know) last July at Dick Hardt's blog, although since they first appeared, his blog appears to have undergone a facelift and the pictures there are now distorted.
this is a testament to the wonder, glory and power of God.
for only God has the answers to all the questions in the universe.
Very educational. The universe is a big place.
Wow, I never thought it could be any easier to see the sizies. =)
no such thing as space or far off planets
the bible makes no mention of them, so they dont exist
stop looking, adam and eve splained it all
this is a testament to the wonder, glory and power of He-Man.
for only He-Man has the answers to all the questions in the universe.
These are posters most high schools/universities should have. They weren't made on a blog or by some random person.
And the retard above asking to think about light years obviously thinks a year is a unit of time and has no idea what a light year is.
R: Only our Heavenly Father knows the breadth, length, and depth of the Universe. And He has given us the intellect enough to be curious about our environment and about the Universe. Therefor, we wonder at how far out the Universe goes surrounding this small world upon which we live. And whether there are other beings out there in the Universe with whom we may communicate. And, someday, we may be able to travel those 1000 light years in 1000 days. But be careful, the people that you knew here on Earth won't be here upon your return, because you travelled 1000 light years in 1000 days and they've gone around the Sun until they've passed away waiting for you to return. But, maybe by then, we will have attained the level where we will actually die from "Old Age," or just pass through that curtain and become immortal as is our Heavenly Father. Then, when we meet Him for the first time, He will teach us ALL things in order for us to be a complete immortal as He is. Watch and study "2001: a Space Odyssey," "2010: the Year We Made Contact," and "2061: Odyssey Three." OOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Dose the size of a God's sun have any bearing on the size of his tackle?
I am sure all readers know what is a light year, perhaps the first guy (the one asking us to think it again) wanted to say that, as (probably) we all know, Antares is about 400 light years away, instead of 1000.
lets face it, if you never study the universe you'll never comprehend it.
try doing a degree in physics, or get your geek friend to explain it to you
*^_^*
*^_^*
The Holy Qur'an talked about the univers and it's wonders from 1400 years ago before even the humans have any technology why? why? why? why???? u people don't want to be moslem whats preventing u from Believing
thank god i am moslem
FYI, Even though Antares is 700 times the diameter of the sun, it's ONLY 15 times the mass!!! It has an extremely low density compared to the sun. *source wikipedia.org
you know this kind of goes back to religion even though i am not religious
Ooh! ooh! I know! I know! Pick me!
A lightyear is just like a regular year, but with fewer calories! Right?
Hmmm...
Reading the comments above one is lead to deduce that the only thing more boggling than the immensity of the universe is the minuteness of the human mind.
"Thank God, I'm a moslem!" Well, me too! Praise [Allah | Jehovah | Zeus] that I'm a [Catholic | Protestant | Sikh | Jew | Agnostic(?)]. Now, get back in your foxhole so we can get on with killing each other!
These images are great. Better perspective comes from recognising the vastness of interstellar distances that separate these orbs. Good design! By the time any representatives could cross those distances, they may just evolve into something more intelligent than a species that kills its own kind and its biosphere in the name of God (the modern name being, of course, 'consumerism').
Pity for the innocents...
immm reaaalllly small...
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