If you ever stop to contemplate the size of the universe, you may find that either you are filled with awe and wonder, or you just have a massive headache. In either case both of these outcomes would be the accepted norm.
Everybody knows that space is big but there is a difference between the knowledge we are given and the knowledge we realize. What I mean is that no matter how many books you read or videos you watch, you never really feel the scale of the universe. Until you let your mind’s eye attempt to traverse those vast distances and try to get some perspective I don’t think you really understand what is really going on.
You may think that I just refer to the largest of large when talking about the grand scale of all things but let's for a moment consider not just the small but the smallest. Something so small it is as equally unfathomable as the universe its self. This of course is the 'Planck length'.
This distance is so tiny that it gives us the illusion of contact. It is the smallest measurable distance between the smallest possible particles in all of existence. The Planck Length to a Hydrogen atom is equal to a marble compared to Jupiter. It hurts just thinking about it.
It is crazy to think that there exists a world around us that is so small that it is like us peering out into the vast depths of space.
Just like the Planck Length is ridiculously small, space is ridiculously big.
We should all have a pretty good idea of how big our Star is but what about the biggest star? Around 2000 times the diameter of the Sun, VY Canis Majoris is one of the largest stars ever observed at alsmost 2,000,000,000 km across. Yet in the grand scheme of things, still quite small.
The diameter of our galaxy is about 500 million times that of VY Canis Majoris, that's 100000 light years. The gap between galaxies is even bigger.
So just stop for a moment and consider your place in all of this. In a world that is infinitely large and filled with crazy and wondrous things, why is it that we humans are more concerned with who has the best car or what shall I wear tonight? Even the life of humanity becomes irrelevant when considering all things in the universe.
Everyday we fight and argue over the smallest things and cling to flawed ideals that only seek to further our own destruction. We are nothing but a tiny blip in existence and to me this is a humbling idea that we should all take note of.
Although we truly live in a world relative to our size we are still at the mercy of forces that exist beyond our own space time. We shape our own reality but have lost touch with the broader picture.
Although it is entirely possible that our existence is of greater importance than we realize. When taking into account that grand scale of the universe, it is interesting to note that from the smallest to the largest there exists a mean value. Although not an exact match and hard to truly gauge it is argued that we humans fit somewhere in the middle of the scale.
For centuries philosophers, astronomers and religious figures alike argued one fact that may indeed be the truth after all. That humans are indeed at the center of the universe.
Thank you for reading and I look forward to hearing your comments.
