The size of the Universe on a human scale

For those in Melbourne, there's the Solar System Walk - the idea being, putting the solar system on a human scale and accessible; plus now that those in Melbourne can go further than 5km from home, it's achievable to walk from the Sun to Pluto again:


Navigate the solar system from the sun to the outer planets by following the bike and walking trail on the City of Port Phillip’s foreshore.

In 2008 artists and scientists constructed a model of our solar system to a scale of one to one billion between St Kilda and Port Melbourne. Instead of navigating 4.5 billion kilometres from the sun to Neptune, and 5.9 billion kilometres from the sun to Pluto, you only travel 4.5 kilometres and 5.9 kilometres.

The foreshore has always been a superb location to view the sun setting on the western horizon. Port Phillip Bay’s crescent shape is perfect for a model where the ‘sun’ can be viewed from every one of the nine model locations.

REMEMBER
Every millimetre you walk is 1000 kilometres. Every centimetre you walk is 10,000 kilometres.
Every metre you walk (one and a half steps) is 1,000,000 kilometres.
When you walk 5.9 kilometres from the Sun (Marina Reserve) to Pluto (Port Melbourne), you have travelled 5.9 billion kilometres.


 

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For those in Melbourne, there's the Solar System Walk - the idea being, putting the solar system on a human scale and accessible; plus now that those in Melbourne can go further than 5km from home, it's achievable to walk from the Sun to Pluto again:


Navigate the solar system from the sun to the outer planets by following the bike and walking trail on the City of Port Phillip’s foreshore.

In 2008 artists and scientists constructed a model of our solar system to a scale of one to one billion between St Kilda and Port Melbourne. Instead of navigating 4.5 billion kilometres from the sun to Neptune, and 5.9 billion kilometres from the sun to Pluto, you only travel 4.5 kilometres and 5.9 kilometres.

The foreshore has always been a superb location to view the sun setting on the western horizon. Port Phillip Bay’s crescent shape is perfect for a model where the ‘sun’ can be viewed from every one of the nine model locations.

REMEMBER
Every millimetre you walk is 1000 kilometres. Every centimetre you walk is 10,000 kilometres.
Every metre you walk (one and a half steps) is 1,000,000 kilometres.
When you walk 5.9 kilometres from the Sun (Marina Reserve) to Pluto (Port Melbourne), you have travelled 5.9 billion kilometres.


this must be new
I used to walk along their daily
 

Dan26

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For those in Melbourne, there's the Solar System Walk - the idea being, putting the solar system on a human scale and accessible; plus now that those in Melbourne can go further than 5km from home, it's achievable to walk from the Sun to Pluto again:


Navigate the solar system from the sun to the outer planets by following the bike and walking trail on the City of Port Phillip’s foreshore.

In 2008 artists and scientists constructed a model of our solar system to a scale of one to one billion between St Kilda and Port Melbourne. Instead of navigating 4.5 billion kilometres from the sun to Neptune, and 5.9 billion kilometres from the sun to Pluto, you only travel 4.5 kilometres and 5.9 kilometres.

The foreshore has always been a superb location to view the sun setting on the western horizon. Port Phillip Bay’s crescent shape is perfect for a model where the ‘sun’ can be viewed from every one of the nine model locations.

REMEMBER
Every millimetre you walk is 1000 kilometres. Every centimetre you walk is 10,000 kilometres.
Every metre you walk (one and a half steps) is 1,000,000 kilometres.
When you walk 5.9 kilometres from the Sun (Marina Reserve) to Pluto (Port Melbourne), you have travelled 5.9 billion kilometres.



You know the interesting thing about that walk at St.Kilda?

After you reach Pluto, just beyond that, there is model of Proxima Centauri (our closest star other than our own Sun)

Proxima Centauri is in correct size scale about 1/10th the size of our Sun. But obviously it couldn't be to correct distance scale, right?

Wrong! it actually IS at correct distance scale. if you continue walking along Port Phillip foreshore and continue walking all the way around the Earth (which is about 40,000 km) and come back to the exact same spot where the Proxima Centauri model is, you will find it is to scale!

That's Proxima Centauri at the top, and our Sun at the bottom

1635158743809.png


1635158772710.png
 
If the Earth was 1 cm long (like a marble) what size (and how far apart) would other objects be?

It's quite amazing when you think about it. The biggest star in the galaxy, if placed in the middle of our solar system, would be as big as the orbit of Jupiter


i enjoy that youtube channel
 
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It can be as infinitely big as it wants but the only life is here on earth.

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10 - 100 billion stars in our galaxy, 10 - 100 billion galaxies in the Universe makes that unlikely. Life elsewhere just has better things to do then visit here to tip over cows and kidnap drunk americans to anal probe.
 
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10 - 100 billion stars in our galaxy, 10 - 100 billion galaxies in the Universe makes that unlikely. Life elsewhere just has better things to do then visit here to tip over cows and kidnap drunk americans to anal probe.

Aparently we can identify the geological makeup of planets billions of lightyears away, but we haven't found life outside Earth yet.

Not buying it.
 
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10 - 100 billion stars in our galaxy, 10 - 100 billion galaxies in the Universe makes that unlikely. Life elsewhere just has better things to do then visit here to tip over cows and kidnap drunk americans to anal probe.
There are something like 300 billion galaxies in the observable universe. The observable universe is tiny compared to the actual size, we are basically blind to most of it.

Aparently we can identify the geological makeup of planets billions of lightyears away, but we haven't found life outside Earth yet.

Not buying it.

We have been looking, there is just no evidence. Ref Fermi paradox.
 

Dan26

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There is a super massive black hole at the center of every galaxy. Ours is no different.



The biggest Black Hole in the Universe is TON 618. It's 15,300 times more massive than the Milky Way's central Black Hole. Ton 618 is as big as the distance from our Sun to Neptune 40 times.

1635946169715.png
 
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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.

Douglas Adams

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour.
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned,
The sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at 40, 000 miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Monty Python
 
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