Our Place In The Universe: Just How Small Are We Compared to Everything?
We can take pride in the fact that out of the millions of species that exist on our planet, we are the only ones that can look up at the stars to make sense of what is out there.
Granted, we still do not understand our place in the universe fully. In fact, we are no way near doing that. But no other species even has a sense of its place on Earth, let alone the cosmos.
Yes, this is a matter of pride and we can rejoice in it. But, as we are discovering more and more about the universe, that pride is waning faster than ever. It’s not because we have suddenly become any less able, but because of the sheer magnitude of what lies out there.
The universe is so immeasurably humongous, that I think there is no word that can do justice in describing its size. We often credit our imagination with being boundless and let me tell you, the universe is even more boundless than that.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
To give you a sense of our place in the universe and just how small we are compared to everything, we must set out on a journey. A journey to the edge of the universe, and beyond.
The solar system is our first line of address in the cosmos. We all know that there are 8 planets revolving around the sun and our planet is in the 3rd position placed perfectly from the sun so as to give our carbon based life on Earth, a chance to flourish.
As soon as we leave Earth, we begin to get a new perspective about ourselves. In our solar system alone, there are several heavenly bodies that outsize us. The sun is so large, that you could fit 1,300,000 Earths inside it.
Even a fellow planet, Jupiter, is so huge that you could fit 1,300 Earths inside of it. The planets Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are all much larger than Earth too.
THE MILKY WAY GALAXY
Our galaxy is called the milky way galaxy and it is the next line of our cosmic address. We are now venturing out of our solar system and into the realm of interstellar travel.
Our sun is only 1 among the many stars that our galaxy has. How many? Billions of them! Some estimates go beyond 100 billion stars. Now, you can only imagine just how small our sun is compared to the galaxy, let alone our planet Earth.
A lot, or most of these stars have at least 1 planet revolving around it. Some have even more. So if there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, just think how many planets there must be. The numbers are getting really big now, but wait till you read further.
THE UNIVERSE
There are many smaller lines of addresses that we can add to our cosmic address, but lets keep things simple. Now, we venture out of our beautiful galaxy into intergalactic space.
Just as there are billions of stars in a galaxy, there are billions of galaxies in the universe. Up until recently, we thought that there are about 100 billion galaxies. But, researchers at NASA are now estimating that there might be a trillion of them!
Just wait for a second and take it all in. A trillion galaxies, with roughly 100 billion stars in each of them. Are you getting the picture now? Is the number of zeros starting to hurt your brain?
If not, let me tell you, that these galaxies are only in the observed universe. We have no idea how many there are outside of the observable universe.
THE MULTIVERSE
As if the journey up till now wasn’t mind boggling enough, there are theories that our universe doesn’t constitute what we think of as ‘everything’, meaning, even our universe is not alone.
That’s true, scientists theorise that there are an infinite number of universes out there, and that our universe is but one tiny bubble among them.
If you want to imagine this, try picturing an infinite number of bubbles floating around randomly. Our universe would be one of those bubbles.
So, do you now have a sense of perspective of our existence? We long for the knowledge of our place in the universe while the universe itself may not have a definite place of its own!
I think gaining a true perspective of our existence is a fool's errened, and should be looked at as a thought experiment. This is super interesting, but our view is so limited in the grand scheme of things. Say we had the big picture, the pattern of our universe could be completely obvious.
Yes, there is a possibility that we may never truly understand the full reaches of the universe. We can only try. :)
Given the subject to us in technical terms is more of a giant question mark, the little knowledge we currently have is always nice to use to reflect on philosophically as well. Using it to put our daily & possibly future choices in perspective is awesome as is and I feel its a very powerful tool. Great post
Agreed! Thanks for reading :)