A few days I posted about two astronomers that figured out the average of all the light in the universe is turquoise. While I hoped they did not have a government grant to research such foolery, it got me thinking about the inky blackness about us.
One of the books I’m currently reading is The Universe and Beyond by Terence Dickson. One part of his book that awed me was his descriptions of the vastness of the universe.
- If the Sun were reduced to the size of a ping-pong ball, the Earth is about the size of a speck of dust 2.5 meters away. Pea-sized Jupiter would be 12 meters away, and our the next nearest star, Alpha Centauri (actually a triple-star) would be 700 meters away.
- If the Milky Way were shrunken down to fit in the palm of your hand, you’d have to walk for 100 years to get to the next galaxy.
- If a single photon of light from the headlights of your car didn’t get swallowed up by Earthly polution and continued on into space, it would pass the moon two seconds after you turned your lights on. One hour later, the Earth and moon are barely visable, and in one month the Sun is but a very bright, small dot. About 50 years later that photon of light would be leaving the Milky Way. Now here is the kicker - after that photon left the Milky Way, it will be another 2 million years before reaches Andromeda, the next closest galaxy.
Why is this interesting? Why do I tell you this? Think about the vastness of space and how small you are within it. Any individual person is literally nothing. Think about that the next time you get cut off on the freeway and you let your day be ruined over that act. It means nothing in the overall scope of things. That is why Astronomy is so interesting. It constantly reminds us that we need to be humble.