And how big is your house? Your garden or balcony. The city you live in. Your country. And the continent that country is in. How big is our planet, do you think?
Our home is surrounded by a few other planets, who are also dancing around the Sun, together forming our Solar System. Any idea how big that-important-star-we-call-our-sun actually is? A while ago I received an e-mail from Geoff, which contained this picture of the Sun (the ‘big’ red ball). Maybe you’ve seen it before too, it’s now also circulating in Dutch (for which I’m not responsible). Anyway, the ‘little’ ball next to it is the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is the biggest planet of our Solar System. And the little black dot? That’s where your house and city and country is on!
The e-mail had more thought provoking pictures, as the Sun may be the most important star to us, it’s certainly not the biggest. Compared to some stars, the Sun is only that tiny black dot! And it is only a ‘tiny’ dot in our galaxy – the Milky Way. (How big is your house now?) And it doesn’t stop there. Here’s an example of a nice spiral galaxy, the Pinwheel one. Another one of the milliards of galaxies out there…!
Credit: SDSS.
To explain in a talk what Galaxy Zoo is about, especially for groups of people who are not ‘all that into’ astronomy, I usually start with this. The point of this story here? Well, the e-mail ended with the question: how big are you? And: how big are your problems today? So even if you already knew all of this, maybe it’s good to stop and think about it from time to time.
Especially maybe when you’re on a sofa feeling sorry for yourself because you’re having the flu. I do hope that this flu is gone enough though this Saturday, as I’m doing the first talk of this year then. I updated my calendar page, so see you all out there!
6 Comments
Hope you are feeling better and good luck with the talk. I’ll get back to my tiny corner of our little black dot
And I love the Pinwheel Galaxy
Hanny, hope the flu will fly away soon!
Speaking of comparisons of planets and the sun: A while ago I published a video in which you can see a good comparion of sizes, from Earth to the biggest known star in the universe. See: http://www.astroblogs.nl/2008/02/12/altijd-baas-boven-baas/
Oh, and here’s one with music: http://www.astroblogs.nl/2008/09/22/sterren-en-planeten-vergelijken-t-blijft-leuk/ Kind of nervous music, but really appropriate.
Thanks for the links Arie.
I like this one, Hanny. It is good to remember how small we really are in the grand scheme. Maybe Carl Sagans Blue Dot would be a nice idea for a future post. I can’t read that without getting emotional and reaching for my blanket.