Posted on 12/09/2024 5:02:58 PM PST by Red Badger
It was barely a century ago that we thought the Milky Way encompassed the entirety of the Universe. Now? We’re not even a special galaxy.
Key Takeaways
Our galaxy, if you measure its longest axis from end-to-end, extends for over 100,000 light-years in space: a remarkable distance to fathom that’s billions of times the Earth-Sun separation.
Yet if we compare our Milky Way to the largest galaxies in the Universe, we learn that not only are we nothing special, but we’re not even in the same league as the largest ones of all. How large can the largest galaxy truly be?
Even if we restrict ourselves to the ones we’ve found, rather than what’s theoretically possible, what we’ve found is truly, profoundly tremendous.
===========================================================================
PICTURES OF THE MANY GALAXIES AT LINK...............
So in all that vastness, it’s hard to believe that We are the only We out there.......
Bigger than ten boxes.
Is that more than ten boxes? I don't think so.
Yet these same astrophysicists tell us there isn’t enough visible matter in the Universe to account for the Big Bang, so they had to invent (made up) Dark Matter and Dark Energy to account for the discrepancy................
Aliens from there would say your puny galaxy is no match for ours!
Well 200+ trillion is roughly 6+ times the national debt as a raw number. That’s comprehensible as an equation, anyway.
So the galaxy is like an AR-15? That’s huge!!
URANUS!! Oh, wait....
Funny you said that, was thinking the same thing a couple hours ago. Here’s one, at the present rate of accruing national debt in less than ten years if it were to be a dollar a mile we could make a round trip to Alpha Centuri and back. Yet it would take some 150,000 years at current rocket speeds to make that trip.
Is it bigger than Texas?
However big it is, the stars are all numbered and have a name....
Psalm 147:4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
Now _that_ boggles my mind!
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.
Imagine being able to traverse it’s immensity in the blink of an eye......................
This thread brings to mind the opening sequence of this MP sketch, with Cleese doing his best narrator voice.
https://youtu.be/L1sYgknWGSA?si=VzXcKrMMq1S_ZyKh
It’s big. Really big.
No one knows that and probably never will. Unless we can invent a space engine that can go 5x the speed of light.
If you accelerate to exactly the speed of light, time stops for and you can go anywhere in an instant. Of course, nobody back home will ever know what became of you, they'll all be gone.
...and at that speed of light, still takes 100,000 years to cross our own small galaxy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.