Light Years

[Blister]

This is mind blowing and takes some thinking about as to how insignificant we are on our little world :shock:
.
.
.
Light Years.
Because the universe is so big, using our usual measurements…. miles, kilometers etc, isn't practical as the numbers are so big.
The measurements we use are based on how long it takes light to cover a certain distance in a certain time.
The moon is at an average distance from us of 239,000 miles, and it takes light roughly 1.3 seconds to cover that distance.
The moon is therefore said to be 1.3 light seconds away from us.

The sun is 93 million miles away, and it takes light roughly 8 minutes to cover this distance, so the sun is said to be 8 light minutes away.

Light from the nearest star to us, Proxima Centauri, takes 4.3 years to get to us.
Proxima Centauri is therefore 4.3 light years away.
One light-year equals 5.88 million million miles.

Light from the nearest galaxy, M31, the Great Spiral in Andromeda, takes 2.5 million years to get here.

The most distant object yet seen, GRB090423 was discovered on 23rd April 2009, and is 13 billion light years away.
The universe is vast beyond comprehension.

 

[henton49er]

Blister,

Do not forget the parsec which is roughly equivalent to 3.26 light years (parsec comes from parallax second, and is the distance from the sun to an object where the parallax angle is equal to one second of arc). Some distances are measured in gigaparsecs equivalent to 3.26 billion light years. As light travels at 186,000 miles per second it is quite a long way!!!

Mike

 

[RogerS]

It really is mind-boggling. Now how about this one.

We live on a sizeable planet, right?

Well, sort of. This compares all the planets in the solar system for size

OK...so how does the earth compare to the Sun?

Mmmm...that sun's pretty big. Wrong.

The sun is teensy compared to a much bigger star like Arcturus

But in comparison to Betelgeuse, Arcturus is a tiddler.

 

[doctor Bob]

Yes but the bad news is that in trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion years there will be absolutely nothing

 

[RogerS]

Is that an American trillion or a British trillion?

It's important to know as I need to get my pension sorted out.

 

[Kalimna]

What's even freakier is the rate the extremely early universe expanded (according to the only current theory that fits all available evidence) - from 10^-36 to 10^-32 seconds, it expanded by a factor of 10^78. Those are rather extreme numbers, however you look at it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_(cosmology)

Also, and I think this was posted a while back, here is a fasinating scaleable animation of things at various scales in the universe :
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347

Enjoy,
Adam

 

[bugbear]

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 drug store, but that's just peanuts to space.

BugBear

 

[Esox Lucius]

and here is me getting fed up because it takes me 10 minutes to get to town for some milk and bread :?

 

[Anonymous]

but what boggles me is that we could be looking at stars that died/burnt out a million years ago but it still appears to be there.

 

[bosshogg]

In the beginning there nowt, then came the big bang some 13 billion years ago, give or take, and there was matter...now that's mind boggling. Everything we see_ the fact that we see_ the fact we're hear to see supposedly started then...the rest is just conjecture

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind. A.E. 8)

 

[DOOGYREV]

Your all talking Graham's :!:

 

[The Shark]

In the beginning there nowt, then came the big bang some 13 billion years ago, give or take, and there was matter...now that's mind boggling.

"Always look on the bright side of life...
I mean - what have you got to lose?
You know, you come from nothing - you're going back to nothing. What have you lost?
Nothing!
Always look on the right side of life..."


Traditional Ditty, believed to have been first sung by Brian's mate Eric. \/ \/ \/