Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Sharon Begley
Measuring the Immeasurable
The size of the universe is unknown. Technically speaking, we only know the size of the observable universe which is approximately 93 billion light years. It is extremely difficult to imagine the immensity of the universe so with diagrams we can see how minuscule we are.
Here are some fun facts:
How big is the universe in miles? Our best guess is 540 sextillion or 540,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.
What is the age of the universe? Scientists believe the universe is around 13.7 billion years old. We know this by looking at the oldest stars.
Is the universe infinite? There is no evidence to prove it BUT there is no evidence to disprove it.
Just some mild panicThis is the actual distance between the moon and earth. Pretty shocking right?! One thing that is interesting is that all the remaining planets in our solar system can fit between the 250,000 miles. Credit: NASAThis is Earth compared to the Sun. We are getting smaller and smaller the more you scroll down. “The Pale Blue Dot” – Carl Sagan. Taken by Voyager 1. This picture really shows that we are practically microscopic, so take a break and look around appreciating what we got. We could be dark matter for all I know. Another fun fact is there is a ONE in FOUR TRILLION chance of you being born here on planet earth (unless you’re an alien). Credit: NASAYou see the sun? That’s around where we are. We aren’t done yet. This is only one of the 200 billion galaxies in the universe. In the Milky Way galaxy there is around 100 thousand million stars and of them only 3916 stars are reported with planets orbiting them. You thought the Milky Way is big? Look at the one below. Credit: WikipediaTON 618: the largest black hole we have ever discovered. A black hole is a place in space where gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape. To put this in perspective Neptune’s orbit length is 15,299Â mi and takes 165 Earth years to complete its orbit. TON 618 is TWICE the size of the Milky Way and it has a mass of 66000000000 billion suns (66 billion). Anyways, that’s not even the biggest thing. Credit: YouTube
Check out this link to see an animation NASA put together to compare earth and black holes: https://youtu.be/8GnSFAZD8YY
Now we just keep getting smaller and smaller and Our view of the world keeps getting bigger and bigger. This is the biggest galaxy we know and it has around 100 trillion stars. It is 6 MILLION LIGHT YEARS LONG HOLY MOLY. You get the idea of how huge this galaxy is. Credit: DiscoveryThis is the Virgo Supercluster(VSC). At this point you can’t even compare Earth to this so we’re using other galaxies compared to the VSC. It contains at least 100 galaxy groups and 33 mega parsecs apart or 110 million light years apart. The Milky Way is also a part of the VSC. There are 10 million superclusters in the observable universe. This is just getting too big. Credit: WikipediaWe are almost done! This is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall AKA the largest superstructure in the UNIVERSE. It contains a huge group of galaxies forming something like a blanket. It was discovered in 2013 when scientists were mapping Gamma Ray Bursts. It is 1 billion light years thick and 7.2 billion light years wide. Credit: WikipediaThe observable universe: the womb of all the stars. This is everything. Well, almost. Due to the fact that we do not have enough technology, we don’t know whether the universe is infinite. The most likely chance is that there is more universe maybe even multiverses or parallel universes. That is for another post though! Credit: Wikipedia
With all being said, a lot of new information would have entered your brain and you may have a mini existential crisis, but it is okay. We may be insignificant but we are so unique and unlike anyone else in this universe. We are the only life to inhabit a planet that we know of. This is significant. We are significant. You are significant. 🙂
Vasundhra Arulazi 
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