[hosepipe]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080520.html

That pic is a pic NOT OF Stars but of GALAXYS.. the whole picture is of GALAXYS.. The distance between each of them is awe inspiring.. as is the distance accross each one.. It amazes me the potential size of this Universe.. I’m not sure I can even compute/grasp it in my head.. What thinking about Stars in the Milky Way(while observing it) did to my mind when I was young.... THIS picture does now.. To think each light in this picture is a Galaxy.. an entire Galaxy... this site has other pictures of multi-galaxys..

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

From wikipedia:

The observable universe contains about 3 to 7 × 1022 stars (30 to 70 Billion Trillion stars), organized in more than 80 billion galaxies.

[Alamo-Girl]

It amazes me the potential size of this Universe..

And in both directions - large and small.

I strongly agree with Wigner's observation of the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences. To me, it is like God's copyright notice on the cosmos:

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. [There is] no speech nor language, [where] their voice is not heard. - Psalms 19:1-3

And in this instance I suggest that "large" and "small" of the universe is a matter of the perspective of the observer, what we would call the "observer problem." For those who haven't seen this, click on the following as an illustration of perspective:

Powers of Ten

For instance, P.S. Wesson's theory of Five Dimensional Reality and Two Times suggests that what we observe in four dimensional space/time and call "particles" could be as little as a single particle in a fifth time-like dimension multiply imaged 10⁸⁰ times. IOW, one particle in a time-like dimension would cause the illusion of the universe (four dimensional physical reality) to those of us "anchored" here.

And again, Max Tegmark's Level IV Parallel Universe model is the only closed cosmological model known to me. He posits that what we observe to be "real" as observers in four dimensional space/time are actually mathematical structures which really exist outside of space and time:

A mathematical structure is an abstract, immutable entity existing outside of space and time. If history were a movie, the structure would correspond not to a single frame of it but to the entire videotape. Consider, for example, a world made up of pointlike particles moving around in three-dimensional space. In four-dimensional spacetime — the bird perspective — these particle trajectories resemble a tangle of spaghetti. If the frog sees a particle moving with constant velocity, the bird sees a straight strand of uncooked spaghetti. If the frog sees a pair of orbiting particles, the bird sees two spaghetti strands intertwined like a double helix. To the frog, the world is described by Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation. To the bird, it is described by the geometry of the pasta — a mathematical structure. The frog itself is merely a thick bundle of pasta, whose highly complex intertwining corresponds to a cluster of particles that store and process information. Our universe is far more complicated than this example, and scientists do not yet know to what, if any, mathematical structure it corresponds.

I strongly suspect that in banishing Adam to mortality (Genesis 3) God limited the visual and mental perception of Adamic man to four dimensions (three of space and one of time) thereafter rendering man blind to both the spiritual realm and the full nature and extent of the physical realm:

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. - Hebrews 13:2

To God be the glory!

[TXnMA]

That is one of my favorite "desktop 'wallpaper'" images!

The amazing thing is that it was obtained by having the telescope "stare at" a tiny spot in the sky that you could cover with your fingertip at arm's length. And -- no matter where you point the telescope (that is not obscured by stars in or own galaxy) we observe that the density of galaxies everywhere in the universe is essentially the same.

What an awesome Creator our God is!!!!

[TXnMA]

That photo (centered on the Perseus Cluster of galaxies) does contain roughly a "double handful" of nearby stars. They are the bright, bluish object with "sparkle crosses" (diffraction artifacts).

Interestingly, the difference between their bluish color and the "warmer" colors of the distant galaxies is visible proof of the "red-shift" that astronomers use as a measure of immense distance and as evidence of the velocity of expansion of the universe...

[reagan_fanatic]

That has to be one of the most beautiful and wonderous pictures I’ve ever seen.

Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?

[southland]

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