Want to feel truly small?

[n2doc]

This is a map of the nearby Universe. Each dot represents galaxies, not stars. 100,000 galaxies, to be approximate. You are looking at a representation of roughly 1000000000000000 stars total.


Again, this is only the region nearest to our galaxy.

Think we are alone in all this?


(H/T to TMQ)

[cdsilv]

1. Which 'dot' is our galaxy? The one in the 'center'? n/t

[Occulus]

15. We would be in the exact center of this image, yes

For a better explanation, go watch this video starting at seven minutes and thirty seconds:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/george_smoot_on_the_design_of_the_universe.html

Also gets good around nine minutes in.

[Mira]

2. Mind boggling Rec'd

[RT Atlanta]

3. Breathtaking...

and really helps with a little perspective.

My take: no, we're not alone, but unclear whether life is bacterial, or "intelligent" - I hope there is a lot of both out there. :)

I would like for those who made the idiotic statements from a few months back (I am thinking of Gingrich, and their chastising Obama for his statements about being a citizen of the world (rather than the repukes, "me me me and USA or the highway")) could see the image, but more importantly, study it and appreciate just how small our little speck of dust is on the cosmic scale.

thank you for sharing!

[tridim]

7. It's amazing to me that the human mind..

constructed from nothing more than recycled matter from long dead stars, is able to figure it all out from a distance.

[n2doc]

4. Yes, we are dead center

The dark strips are those areas we can't see because our own galaxy blocks us from seeing in those places.

[Orrex]

20. Thanks--I was wondering about that

:hi:

[tridim]

5. That's a new image for me, do you have a link?

I'd like to know what satellite gathered the data.

This is the image I've seen before.. The cosmic background radiation map of the Universe.

[n2doc]

6. Here's a link

http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cms/astro/cosmos/S/Six-Degree+Field+Galaxy+Survey

[madinmaryland]

8. So that is how much a brazillion is!

Pretty incredible when you think about the size and vastness of the universe.

[qazplm]

9. actually

it's a gazillion thank you very much!

[bvar22]

10. Is that map broken?

I can't get it to zoom in so I can see my house.

K&R

[moggie]

11. And to think it was all made for me personally!

I just love astronomers' use of terms like "nearby" and "local". You might think "local" is a twenty-minute walk, but to an astronomer the "local group" consists of about thirty galaxies, and is about ten million light-years across. Forget Texas, these guys think big.

[emilyg]

12. k/r

[byronius]

13. Wow.

[pokerfan]

14. Multiply by seventy million

to get a (very rough) idea of the size of the universe. (Latest estimate of the number of stars in the universe: ~7x10²².)

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/star_count_030722.html

:wow:

[CrispyQ]

16. Fantastic! I love this stuff.

Thanks for the fascinating pic!

k&r

[Orsino]

17. Only a quadrillion stars?

That's only a few Milky Ways' worth. Surely we're talking sextillions or more.

[pokerfan]

18. Seventy sextillions at least...

A 7 followed by 22 zeros: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/star_count_030722.html

Grains of sand on all the world's beaches = 7,500,000,000,000,000,000, or seven quintillion five quadrillion grains of sand: http://www.miamisci.org/tripod/whysand.html

Dividing the number of stars by the number of grains of sand: 7x10^22 / 7.5x10^18 = 9,333.33.

Therefore, not only are there more stars than grains of sand, there are about ten thousand stars for each grain of sand!

[redqueen]

23. Nice.

I love this forum.

[gtar100]

24. So how many grains of sand are in the universe?

And what percentage of them are inside of a shoe?

[pokerfan]

25. 2.718 Brazilian

And what percentage of them are inside of a shoe?

Most of them.

[Strong Atheist]

19. Nice pic! nt.

[Orrex]

21. Yikes! Get me my peril-sensitive sunglasses!

[pokerfan]

22. Here's the accompanying press release

http://www.aao.gov.au/AAO/press/6dF_Galaxy_Survey_release.pdf

[Indenturedebtor]

26. Hmmmf. It's still not enough to contain the awesome that is Strawberry Milk

But pretty cool all the same :D

[and-justice-for-all]

27. But life does not exist anywhere else but here....

:sarcasm:

[Duer 157099]

28. All of that space

and we have the supreme misfortune to be trapped on the same tiny little speck as repukes.

I want my own planet.