Our Home

I think it's difficult for many people to really grasp how tiny we are relative to the universe. I've gathered up some good size comparative photos to demonstrate our significance in a relatively spatial manner.

The first image shows the earth relative to the Moon. The Moon is on average 384,403km away or approximately 1.255 light seconds away.

Earth's Mean radius: 6,371.0 km
Moon's Mean radius: 1,737.10 km

Next is a photo comparing the size of Earth to the size of the Sun. The Sun is approximately 93million miles from Earth and it takes light an average of 8.33 minutes to travel this distance.

Sun's Equatorial radius 6.955×10^8 m

Our Solar System alone spans billions of kilometers.

And here is our Sun again, just as a spec to the side of the Galactic Equator.

Again, a spec amidst our home the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Milky Way in all its glory, with the Sun hidden away.

The approximate diameter of the Milky Way is 100,000 light years. And here is our galaxy, merely a spec among other galaxies within our "local group" of galaxies. Our local group alone is about ten million light years across.

Next, our "local group" in relation to other nearby groups of galaxies. 1 Mpc = 3,261,636.26 light years. This is still just a tiny section of our universe!

Our local group is a part of the Virgo Supercluster!

Last one... can you find your way home? There are more than one hundred billion (10^11) galaxies in the Universe, each containing hundreds of billions of stars!

i have one to continue your second post.this compairs the Sun's size to Sirius, Pollux,and Arcturus.

this one is the mind-boggler.the Sun,in this pic,is only one pixel in size.

For various reasons - our relative small size being the most obvious - we do not feel the effects of the speed at which we travel. Perhaps you understand that we are in constant motion relative to our cosmic surroundings, but here are a few in depth details:

The speed of Earth's rotation along its axis is approximately 1,000 miles per hour.

The speed of Earth rotating around the Sun is approximately 67,000 miles per hour.

The Sun (along with us!) circles the Milky Way at a speed of about 486,000 miles per hour.

The Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy are approaching each other with a speed of about 300,000 miles per hour.

This does not contain accurate representations of relative distance. I just wanted to show direction of speed.

Hmm, so from here to the moon is a mere 1 1/4 seconds away @the speed of light! [quote]The Moon is on average 384,403km away or approximately 1.255 light seconds away. . . The Sun is approximately 93million miles from Earth and it takes light an average of 8.33 minutes to travel this distance. . . Ya, space travel is such a grand fantasia . . . even @ light sped you would have to be older than the earth to pass through it. Let alone establish any kind of outpost or colony . . . space the final frontier or end of the road as we divest the earth of it's ability to support life as tiny lifeboats leave the doomed planet to search eternally (for the rest of their lives) seeking a new place to call home so we can once again proceed to devour another planet . . . space the last frontier in a world lost & without hope.

Interesting Wyote . . . looking over the varrious distances & related diameters, I tend to wonder in reguarding the motions of planets & such we are taught that acceleration is constant . . .http://www.captaincynic.com/thread/68337/2/quantum-physics-double-slit-e
xperiment.htm Wonder if any of these values would reproduce the value approximately the smae as of Special Relativity?

quote:

---

looking over the various distances & related diameters, I tend to wonder in regarding the motions of planets & such we are taught that acceleration is constant . . these values would reproduce the value approximately the same as of Special Relativity?

---

According to physics, all these systems would reproduce a constant value so if then what would numerical equal value of acceleration to the E=M C(2) give us? A level of existence in which e-m energy would be equivalent to inertial mass?