Knowing Your Place In The Cosmos Can Be An Eye Opener

in #science6 years ago

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They say perspective is everything. You might look like a giant to an ant but to a blue whale, you would be like a little puppy. It’s all relative when it comes to creation itself.

Similarly, we are often too absorbed in our lives and all its problems that we seldom realise that they mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I think most people on the planet suffer from this myopic view of life where they are so engrossed in their calendar events and to-do lists and the daily hustle and bustle of life that they forget to look up. Up towards the infinite cosmos.

Have you ever wondered about the size of the universe and then contrasted your life and all its little problems with the sheer magnitude of it all? Well, if you haven’t, let me give you a brief lesson.

Your Place In The Cosmos

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Image Credits: Andrew Z. Colvin

So, the first line of our address in the cosmos is our very own planet, Earth, our home. Just compare yourself to the magnitude of this planet. The difference is pretty mind-boggling, right? Well, hold on, it’s going to get crazier.

The Earth is one of the eight planets in the Solar system which revolve around the Sun. The Sun itself is so large that 1.3 million Earths could fit inside it. That’s a lot of Earths!

Next, our Sun is just one of the hundreds of billions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy and is situated in one of its outer arms. If you’ve see a photo of the galaxy, you would see that the Sun is barely visible as a tiny dot of light.

Now, our Milky Way galaxy is part of a small group called the Local Group which contains about 54 galaxies. This Local Group is itself a part of a much larger Virgo Supercluster which consists of 100 galaxy groups like our Local Group.

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According to a study in 2014, this humongous Virgo Supercluster is just a love of an even greater supercluster called the Laniakea Supercluster, which consists of approximately 100,000 galaxies.

All these superclusters, come together to form the universe. It is estimated that there are a hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe alone. Observable universe is the just the spherical region of the universe that we have been able to observe from Earth till now, thanks to the technology we have.

Who knows how big the whole of the universe really is. Maybe the observable universe is just a tiny part of the whole! So, as you see, we, barely exist as far as the universe is concerned.

So, the next time you are feeling overwhelmed by your problems, just think about how unthinkably large the universe is and they will seem like nothing!

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The fact that we even exist somewhere in such vast universe(s) is supernatural in itself. We're so damn small that I doubt if we will ever be able to find life outside of Earth.

Maybe the universe is teeming with life. Since the distances involved between even two planets within a solar system is so huge, we just haven't found them. The same can be true for them too!

Yup. Just like we are struggling to find them, they could be dealing with the same problem.

When I observe of the vastness of the universe, all that conforms it, it's "goins on" & "goins off"... I instead feel exalted, overjoyed to be an intrinsic part of this immeasurable, chaotic & elegant orchestration.

Yeah, it's wonderful to be a part of it all!

@sauravrungta Science comes out with many facts. Universe is so big. and you explained it in a very briefly. very well explained .

Thank you so much for the kind words.

Does the universe have any border? an edge? or is it infinite?

I wish I knew the answer to that!!

Awesome... So enlightening
Thanks for sharing,it really touched me

Thank you for reading :)

🙏 where we need spirituality🙏

That we do!

This is exactly how I felt when I first saw this documentary earth to universe..


It's a mixed feeling of both relief and scariness to know how tiny we are in comparison to universe..

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Yeah it's a special feeling to realise the actual vastness of the universe.

Everytime, I read about universe it gives me some goosebumps. I have a long story of reading astrophysics and I think this is not a rocket science. If we apply common sense we can understand the mystery of space. How little we are! Highly diminished. Someday some saint asked Yudhishter "What is the most surprising aspect of life to you" and Yudhishter answered in a beautiful way. He said "Many like us came here before, many of us are dying everyday and one day I have to leave my body but why does it take many lives of a human being to understand this simple logic and he adds I am nothing. Liberation happened "
Sometimes I wonder where we will be in 2118? Though, Our work, name and some memories will be saved in Steem Blockchain.
That's why I like astrophysics. It connects me back to the source. Thank you for sharing.

Appreciation
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I get goosebumps thinking about the extent of it all too. Watching that second photo of the post actually gave me one! Anyways, that was beautiful from Yudhishter. I too wonder about things like that and one can only hope for liberation one day.

Indeed, Liberation from the mentality that I am the only one around whom this whole planet revolve. It happens when we are high :-)

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The comparison is just so amazing. This is highly spectacular

Thank you so much :)

You're valuably welcome

The galaxy is too huge, and especially the 100,000 galaxies??. oh my god

The 100,000 galaxies is just part of that one supercluster. In the universe, there are approximately 100,000,000,000 galaxies. And this is in just the part of the universe that we have observed till now.

Great read @sauravrungta
If you imagine these dimensions, you can see again how small and insignificant we are. Even the road to the nearest solar system is currently an insurmountable hurdle. And this is just the fraction of a fraction of the distances in our own galaxy.

yeah, I know right!! The distances involved are just so great!

Geez! Once we establish our outposts at the edges of the Universe, the Intergalactic Postal Service is going to need a lot more ZIP Codes.

they sure will!