Subject: Some Perspective.....

Can you find your speck?

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html

 

 

 

 

 

Now, THIS is really fascinating - it's rather dazzling to see it presented this way.


 

 

 

 


 
I certainly thought this was enlightening. Beyond our sun ...
It's a big universe.

 

 

 

 

Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky.
It is more than 600 light years away.
Now how big are you?
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Our Solar System

(Distances not to scale, sizes roughly. If this sun were 8 inches across, Pluto would be 1000 yards away)

 

How BIG is the Solar System?

(AU = astronomical unit, ave. distance from earth to sun, ~93,000,000 mi, or ~0.000016 ly, or ~8 light minutes)

Earth to Sun, 1 AU. (merc 0.4 / ven 0.7 / mars 1.5 / jup 5.2 / sat 9.5 / ura 19 / nep 30 / plu 40 / sed 1000)

Antares diameter ~7 AU

Pluto’s orbit is about 80 AU across. (~0.001 ly)

Sedna’s orbit (a Pluto-like object), is about 2000 AU across. (0.03 ly)

The Oort cloud may have a 300,000 AU diameter. (4.7 ly)

(This is about halfway to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star, 4.2 ly away.)

If our Sun were the size of Antares (the largest star shown above), it would swallow the orbit of Mars.

 

 

Our "Milky Way" Galaxy

(The view from our house. A 360° photo from earth.)

The Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy, a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter of about

100,000 light years containing about 200 billion stars.

 

NGC 7331 is often referred to as "the Milky Way's twin."

This is what an observer from another galaxy might see

when looking at the Milky Way.

 

 

 

NGC 4414, a typical spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, is about 55,000 ly in diameter

 and approximately 65 million ly distant. Credit:NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

 

 


 

 


Now TRY to wrap your mind around this.........

This is the Hubble Telescope Ultra Deep Field view.

They picked the darkest spot they could find in the sky,

(a little south-west of Orion), and they did this time exposure,

like, about 16 days long! - just to see if there was anything out there...

and this is what turned up:

 


 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Ultra_Deep_Field

The HUDF contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies. The patch of sky in which the galaxies reside covers 11.5 square arcminutes. This is smaller than a grain of sand held at arm's length, and equal to roughly one thirteen-millionth of the total area of the sky.

 

 

Below is a close up of one of the darkest regions of the photo above.


 



Humbling, isn't it?

Current theories (if you believe those) are that the observable universe is a sphere around the earth

out to 46.5 billion light years in all directions.

There are probably more than one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.

 


Now How Big Are You?
And how big are the things that upset you today?

Keep life in perspective.
and don't sweat the small stuff!

And, remember who we serve!

Genesis 1:1-5, 14-15

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day… 14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.

Isaiah 45:11, 12, 18

11 Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel… 12  I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. 18  For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

 

Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

 

Psalms 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.

 

Colossians 1:16-17

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible… All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.

 

Psalms 147:4

He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

 

Job 38:4, 7

4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding… 7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

 

amen.

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