ADVERTISEMENT
19. But none of them can compare to the size of a galaxy. In fact, if you shrunk the Sun to the size of a white blood cell and shrunk the Milky Way using the same scale, the Milky Way would be about the size of the United States:
20
20. Indeed, the Milky Way is enormous. Here is where you live inside it:
21
21. But that’s all you can see:
22
All the stars you see at night are part of this yellow circle.
(This is not a picture of the Milky Way, but you can get an idea.)
22. Even our galaxy is a small runt compared to others. Here’s the Milky Way relative to IC 1011, 350 million light-years from Earth:
23
Just THINK about everything that could be inside
23. But let’s think bigger. In JUST this image taken by the Hubble telescope, there are thousands and thousands of galaxies, each containing millions of stars, each with its own planets.
24
24. This is a picture of the galaxy UDF 423. This galaxy is 10 billion light-years away. When you look at this picture, you are looking billions of years into the past.
25
Some of the other galaxies are thought to have formed only a few hundred million years AFTER the Big Bang.
25. And just keep this in mind – This is a picture of a very small part of the universe. It’s just an insignificant fraction of the night sky.
26
26. And, you know, we can assume there are black holes up there. Here’s the size of a black hole relative to Earth’s orbit, just to terrify you:
27
So if you ever find yourself getting angry about your favorite show being canceled or hearing Christmas music playing way too early – just remember…
It’s your home.
28
Continued on the next page
ADVERTISEMENT
