[NYer]

WOW! And what the scientists are seeing (at 5.7 billion light years from Earth) all happened nearly 600 million years before the Earth was even here!

Like EDINVA, it is impossible to grasp these numbers and distances. What stood out for me in the NatGeo article and put things into better perspective was this.

It's so massive, McDonald said, that our own galaxy group—not quite a cluster, at about 30 galaxies, including the Milky Way—has only about 0.1 percent the mass of Phoenix.

The Milky Way Galaxy

Number of stars within 50 000 light years = 200 billion

And even this is a stretch for the imagination.

[SunkenCiv]

Deputy Barney Fife should pop up in the digital displays at these observatories shouting, “it’s BIG! Big big!” ;’)