Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
How Big Is The UNIVERSE
1 Scientific notation
100
6
3
2
1
0
10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010000000
100000001
100001
10100
1010
101
The long scale (decreasingly used in British English) designates a system of numeric names in which a thousand million is called a lsquolsquomilliardrsquorsquo (but the latter usage is now rare) and lsquolsquobillionrsquorsquo is used for a million million
The short scale (always used in American English and increasingly in British English) designates a system of numeric names in which a thousand million is called a lsquolsquobillionrsquorsquo and the word lsquolsquomilliardrsquorsquo is not used
Number notation Power
notationShort scale Long scale Indian English
1000000 106 one million one million ten lakh
1000000000 109 one billion a thousand million
one milliard a thousand million
one hundred crore (one arab)
1000000000000 1012 one trillion a thousand billion
one billion a million million
one lakh crore (ten kharab)
1000000000000000 1015 one quadrillion a thousand trillion
one billiard a thousand billion
ten crore crore (one padma)
1000000000000000000 1018 one quintillion a thousand quadrillion
one trillion a million billion
ten thousand crore crore (ten shankh)
1000000000000000000000 1021 one sextillion a thousand quintillion
one trilliard a thousand trillion
one crore crore crore
Small numbers
3
2
-1
100010
10010
10 01
How to multiply
52323 10101010
0001001000001
1010101010 12323 Now try this
)1052(1021
)106(102
)105(102
)103(102
000110
1010
1010
93
93
93
93
2
5150
45
2 How big is the Earth
First the equatorial diameter of Earth is 12756 km In other words if you dug a tunnel on the equator that went straight down and went right through the center of the Earth it would be about 12756 km long Units 1 mile = 63360 inches or about inches 41036 1 mile = 160934 kilometers or about kilometers 61
How many miles is the Earthrsquos diameter
This is about twice the diameter of Mars and about 01 or of the diameter of Jupiter 110
Letrsquos compare some planets httpsciencenetlinkscominteractivesmessengerpscPlanetSizehtml
Answer this
Calculate the equatorial circumference of Earth=
Earthrsquos diameter is twice as large as Marsrsquos this is what is called the ldquoSCALE FACTORrdquo How many times is the area of Earth larger than the area of Mars
Look at this picture what happens if the length and width double the scale factor is 2
How many times is the volume of Earth larger than the volume of Mars 3 How big is the Solar system Model with every day objects Sun = 87 inch diameter size 5 basketball The Juniors Size 5 basketball has a circumference between 2725 to 2775 inches It weighs 166-18 ounces and has a diameter of 87 inches It is recommended for boys and girls under 12 years old (junior league) Sunrsquos diameter is 1377648 km or 861030 miles How many miles are represented by 1 inch in our model approximately What is the scale factor
How small would you be in this model
The smallest objects that the unaided human eye can see are about 01 mm long You should be able to see an ameoba proteus with the average size of 02 to 03 mm
Light microscopes are limited by the wavelength of visible light which is about 500 nm
(nanometers 1 nanometer = of a meter or one billionth of a meter 910
Electron microscopes help see things smaller than 500 nm
How small is Earth in this model Compute its diameter
Sun-size 5 basketball diameter 87 inches Mercury-a pinhead diameter 003 inch Venus-a peppercorn diameter 008 inch Earth-a second peppercorn Mars-a second pinhead Jupiter-a chestnut or a pecan diameter 1 inch Saturn-a hazelnut or an acorn diameter 07 inch Uranus-a peanut or coffee bean diameter 03 inch Neptune-a second peanut or coffee bean Pluto- a third pinhead (or smaller since Pluto is the smallest object not even a planet) How much space do you need to assemble our model of the Solar system A table This room Kinawa Middle School Okemos Michigan
Distances between Planets Table
Planet Mean Distance From Sun (millions of miles)
Mean Distance in AU
Mean Diameter (miles)
Mercury 360 039 3031 Venus 671 072 7521 Earth 929 100 7926 Mars 1415 152 4221 Jupiter 4834 520 88734 Saturn 8867 954 74566 Uranus 17827 1914 31566 Neptune 27943 3006 30199 Pluto 36661 3953 1450
In our model 1 inch = 100000 miles or miles 510
One pace is about 1 yard or 36 inches
How many miles are represented by one pace
Seven-league boots ndash sand sculpure
Take a pace this distance across the floor is an enormous space-journey called three million six hundred thousand miles
Calculate distances of all planets from the sun in our model
Planet Distance in paces from Sun or previous planet Distance in paces from Sun
Mercury 10 10
Venus 9 19
Earth 7 26
Mars 14 40
Jupiter 95 135
Saturn 112 247
Uranus 249 496
Neptune 281 777
Pluto 242 1019
AU ndash Astronomical Unit = distance from Earth to Sun = about 93 million miles or miles 71039 Speed of light is 186282 miles per second
How long does the light travel from Sun to Earth
How long from Earth to Mars Why is it important Curiosity Rover httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesmslindexhtml
How long from Sun to Pluto
4 How far is it to the closest star
What is a light year ly = how many miles A parsec pc = about 192 trillion (192times1013) miles
1 ly = about 326 parsecs
The two bright stars are (left) Alpha Centauri and (right) Beta Centauri The faint red star in the center of the red circle is Proxima Centauri ndash the closest star just over 4 ly away
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
Small numbers
3
2
-1
100010
10010
10 01
How to multiply
52323 10101010
0001001000001
1010101010 12323 Now try this
)1052(1021
)106(102
)105(102
)103(102
000110
1010
1010
93
93
93
93
2
5150
45
2 How big is the Earth
First the equatorial diameter of Earth is 12756 km In other words if you dug a tunnel on the equator that went straight down and went right through the center of the Earth it would be about 12756 km long Units 1 mile = 63360 inches or about inches 41036 1 mile = 160934 kilometers or about kilometers 61
How many miles is the Earthrsquos diameter
This is about twice the diameter of Mars and about 01 or of the diameter of Jupiter 110
Letrsquos compare some planets httpsciencenetlinkscominteractivesmessengerpscPlanetSizehtml
Answer this
Calculate the equatorial circumference of Earth=
Earthrsquos diameter is twice as large as Marsrsquos this is what is called the ldquoSCALE FACTORrdquo How many times is the area of Earth larger than the area of Mars
Look at this picture what happens if the length and width double the scale factor is 2
How many times is the volume of Earth larger than the volume of Mars 3 How big is the Solar system Model with every day objects Sun = 87 inch diameter size 5 basketball The Juniors Size 5 basketball has a circumference between 2725 to 2775 inches It weighs 166-18 ounces and has a diameter of 87 inches It is recommended for boys and girls under 12 years old (junior league) Sunrsquos diameter is 1377648 km or 861030 miles How many miles are represented by 1 inch in our model approximately What is the scale factor
How small would you be in this model
The smallest objects that the unaided human eye can see are about 01 mm long You should be able to see an ameoba proteus with the average size of 02 to 03 mm
Light microscopes are limited by the wavelength of visible light which is about 500 nm
(nanometers 1 nanometer = of a meter or one billionth of a meter 910
Electron microscopes help see things smaller than 500 nm
How small is Earth in this model Compute its diameter
Sun-size 5 basketball diameter 87 inches Mercury-a pinhead diameter 003 inch Venus-a peppercorn diameter 008 inch Earth-a second peppercorn Mars-a second pinhead Jupiter-a chestnut or a pecan diameter 1 inch Saturn-a hazelnut or an acorn diameter 07 inch Uranus-a peanut or coffee bean diameter 03 inch Neptune-a second peanut or coffee bean Pluto- a third pinhead (or smaller since Pluto is the smallest object not even a planet) How much space do you need to assemble our model of the Solar system A table This room Kinawa Middle School Okemos Michigan
Distances between Planets Table
Planet Mean Distance From Sun (millions of miles)
Mean Distance in AU
Mean Diameter (miles)
Mercury 360 039 3031 Venus 671 072 7521 Earth 929 100 7926 Mars 1415 152 4221 Jupiter 4834 520 88734 Saturn 8867 954 74566 Uranus 17827 1914 31566 Neptune 27943 3006 30199 Pluto 36661 3953 1450
In our model 1 inch = 100000 miles or miles 510
One pace is about 1 yard or 36 inches
How many miles are represented by one pace
Seven-league boots ndash sand sculpure
Take a pace this distance across the floor is an enormous space-journey called three million six hundred thousand miles
Calculate distances of all planets from the sun in our model
Planet Distance in paces from Sun or previous planet Distance in paces from Sun
Mercury 10 10
Venus 9 19
Earth 7 26
Mars 14 40
Jupiter 95 135
Saturn 112 247
Uranus 249 496
Neptune 281 777
Pluto 242 1019
AU ndash Astronomical Unit = distance from Earth to Sun = about 93 million miles or miles 71039 Speed of light is 186282 miles per second
How long does the light travel from Sun to Earth
How long from Earth to Mars Why is it important Curiosity Rover httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesmslindexhtml
How long from Sun to Pluto
4 How far is it to the closest star
What is a light year ly = how many miles A parsec pc = about 192 trillion (192times1013) miles
1 ly = about 326 parsecs
The two bright stars are (left) Alpha Centauri and (right) Beta Centauri The faint red star in the center of the red circle is Proxima Centauri ndash the closest star just over 4 ly away
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
2 How big is the Earth
First the equatorial diameter of Earth is 12756 km In other words if you dug a tunnel on the equator that went straight down and went right through the center of the Earth it would be about 12756 km long Units 1 mile = 63360 inches or about inches 41036 1 mile = 160934 kilometers or about kilometers 61
How many miles is the Earthrsquos diameter
This is about twice the diameter of Mars and about 01 or of the diameter of Jupiter 110
Letrsquos compare some planets httpsciencenetlinkscominteractivesmessengerpscPlanetSizehtml
Answer this
Calculate the equatorial circumference of Earth=
Earthrsquos diameter is twice as large as Marsrsquos this is what is called the ldquoSCALE FACTORrdquo How many times is the area of Earth larger than the area of Mars
Look at this picture what happens if the length and width double the scale factor is 2
How many times is the volume of Earth larger than the volume of Mars 3 How big is the Solar system Model with every day objects Sun = 87 inch diameter size 5 basketball The Juniors Size 5 basketball has a circumference between 2725 to 2775 inches It weighs 166-18 ounces and has a diameter of 87 inches It is recommended for boys and girls under 12 years old (junior league) Sunrsquos diameter is 1377648 km or 861030 miles How many miles are represented by 1 inch in our model approximately What is the scale factor
How small would you be in this model
The smallest objects that the unaided human eye can see are about 01 mm long You should be able to see an ameoba proteus with the average size of 02 to 03 mm
Light microscopes are limited by the wavelength of visible light which is about 500 nm
(nanometers 1 nanometer = of a meter or one billionth of a meter 910
Electron microscopes help see things smaller than 500 nm
How small is Earth in this model Compute its diameter
Sun-size 5 basketball diameter 87 inches Mercury-a pinhead diameter 003 inch Venus-a peppercorn diameter 008 inch Earth-a second peppercorn Mars-a second pinhead Jupiter-a chestnut or a pecan diameter 1 inch Saturn-a hazelnut or an acorn diameter 07 inch Uranus-a peanut or coffee bean diameter 03 inch Neptune-a second peanut or coffee bean Pluto- a third pinhead (or smaller since Pluto is the smallest object not even a planet) How much space do you need to assemble our model of the Solar system A table This room Kinawa Middle School Okemos Michigan
Distances between Planets Table
Planet Mean Distance From Sun (millions of miles)
Mean Distance in AU
Mean Diameter (miles)
Mercury 360 039 3031 Venus 671 072 7521 Earth 929 100 7926 Mars 1415 152 4221 Jupiter 4834 520 88734 Saturn 8867 954 74566 Uranus 17827 1914 31566 Neptune 27943 3006 30199 Pluto 36661 3953 1450
In our model 1 inch = 100000 miles or miles 510
One pace is about 1 yard or 36 inches
How many miles are represented by one pace
Seven-league boots ndash sand sculpure
Take a pace this distance across the floor is an enormous space-journey called three million six hundred thousand miles
Calculate distances of all planets from the sun in our model
Planet Distance in paces from Sun or previous planet Distance in paces from Sun
Mercury 10 10
Venus 9 19
Earth 7 26
Mars 14 40
Jupiter 95 135
Saturn 112 247
Uranus 249 496
Neptune 281 777
Pluto 242 1019
AU ndash Astronomical Unit = distance from Earth to Sun = about 93 million miles or miles 71039 Speed of light is 186282 miles per second
How long does the light travel from Sun to Earth
How long from Earth to Mars Why is it important Curiosity Rover httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesmslindexhtml
How long from Sun to Pluto
4 How far is it to the closest star
What is a light year ly = how many miles A parsec pc = about 192 trillion (192times1013) miles
1 ly = about 326 parsecs
The two bright stars are (left) Alpha Centauri and (right) Beta Centauri The faint red star in the center of the red circle is Proxima Centauri ndash the closest star just over 4 ly away
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
Earthrsquos diameter is twice as large as Marsrsquos this is what is called the ldquoSCALE FACTORrdquo How many times is the area of Earth larger than the area of Mars
Look at this picture what happens if the length and width double the scale factor is 2
How many times is the volume of Earth larger than the volume of Mars 3 How big is the Solar system Model with every day objects Sun = 87 inch diameter size 5 basketball The Juniors Size 5 basketball has a circumference between 2725 to 2775 inches It weighs 166-18 ounces and has a diameter of 87 inches It is recommended for boys and girls under 12 years old (junior league) Sunrsquos diameter is 1377648 km or 861030 miles How many miles are represented by 1 inch in our model approximately What is the scale factor
How small would you be in this model
The smallest objects that the unaided human eye can see are about 01 mm long You should be able to see an ameoba proteus with the average size of 02 to 03 mm
Light microscopes are limited by the wavelength of visible light which is about 500 nm
(nanometers 1 nanometer = of a meter or one billionth of a meter 910
Electron microscopes help see things smaller than 500 nm
How small is Earth in this model Compute its diameter
Sun-size 5 basketball diameter 87 inches Mercury-a pinhead diameter 003 inch Venus-a peppercorn diameter 008 inch Earth-a second peppercorn Mars-a second pinhead Jupiter-a chestnut or a pecan diameter 1 inch Saturn-a hazelnut or an acorn diameter 07 inch Uranus-a peanut or coffee bean diameter 03 inch Neptune-a second peanut or coffee bean Pluto- a third pinhead (or smaller since Pluto is the smallest object not even a planet) How much space do you need to assemble our model of the Solar system A table This room Kinawa Middle School Okemos Michigan
Distances between Planets Table
Planet Mean Distance From Sun (millions of miles)
Mean Distance in AU
Mean Diameter (miles)
Mercury 360 039 3031 Venus 671 072 7521 Earth 929 100 7926 Mars 1415 152 4221 Jupiter 4834 520 88734 Saturn 8867 954 74566 Uranus 17827 1914 31566 Neptune 27943 3006 30199 Pluto 36661 3953 1450
In our model 1 inch = 100000 miles or miles 510
One pace is about 1 yard or 36 inches
How many miles are represented by one pace
Seven-league boots ndash sand sculpure
Take a pace this distance across the floor is an enormous space-journey called three million six hundred thousand miles
Calculate distances of all planets from the sun in our model
Planet Distance in paces from Sun or previous planet Distance in paces from Sun
Mercury 10 10
Venus 9 19
Earth 7 26
Mars 14 40
Jupiter 95 135
Saturn 112 247
Uranus 249 496
Neptune 281 777
Pluto 242 1019
AU ndash Astronomical Unit = distance from Earth to Sun = about 93 million miles or miles 71039 Speed of light is 186282 miles per second
How long does the light travel from Sun to Earth
How long from Earth to Mars Why is it important Curiosity Rover httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesmslindexhtml
How long from Sun to Pluto
4 How far is it to the closest star
What is a light year ly = how many miles A parsec pc = about 192 trillion (192times1013) miles
1 ly = about 326 parsecs
The two bright stars are (left) Alpha Centauri and (right) Beta Centauri The faint red star in the center of the red circle is Proxima Centauri ndash the closest star just over 4 ly away
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
The smallest objects that the unaided human eye can see are about 01 mm long You should be able to see an ameoba proteus with the average size of 02 to 03 mm
Light microscopes are limited by the wavelength of visible light which is about 500 nm
(nanometers 1 nanometer = of a meter or one billionth of a meter 910
Electron microscopes help see things smaller than 500 nm
How small is Earth in this model Compute its diameter
Sun-size 5 basketball diameter 87 inches Mercury-a pinhead diameter 003 inch Venus-a peppercorn diameter 008 inch Earth-a second peppercorn Mars-a second pinhead Jupiter-a chestnut or a pecan diameter 1 inch Saturn-a hazelnut or an acorn diameter 07 inch Uranus-a peanut or coffee bean diameter 03 inch Neptune-a second peanut or coffee bean Pluto- a third pinhead (or smaller since Pluto is the smallest object not even a planet) How much space do you need to assemble our model of the Solar system A table This room Kinawa Middle School Okemos Michigan
Distances between Planets Table
Planet Mean Distance From Sun (millions of miles)
Mean Distance in AU
Mean Diameter (miles)
Mercury 360 039 3031 Venus 671 072 7521 Earth 929 100 7926 Mars 1415 152 4221 Jupiter 4834 520 88734 Saturn 8867 954 74566 Uranus 17827 1914 31566 Neptune 27943 3006 30199 Pluto 36661 3953 1450
In our model 1 inch = 100000 miles or miles 510
One pace is about 1 yard or 36 inches
How many miles are represented by one pace
Seven-league boots ndash sand sculpure
Take a pace this distance across the floor is an enormous space-journey called three million six hundred thousand miles
Calculate distances of all planets from the sun in our model
Planet Distance in paces from Sun or previous planet Distance in paces from Sun
Mercury 10 10
Venus 9 19
Earth 7 26
Mars 14 40
Jupiter 95 135
Saturn 112 247
Uranus 249 496
Neptune 281 777
Pluto 242 1019
AU ndash Astronomical Unit = distance from Earth to Sun = about 93 million miles or miles 71039 Speed of light is 186282 miles per second
How long does the light travel from Sun to Earth
How long from Earth to Mars Why is it important Curiosity Rover httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesmslindexhtml
How long from Sun to Pluto
4 How far is it to the closest star
What is a light year ly = how many miles A parsec pc = about 192 trillion (192times1013) miles
1 ly = about 326 parsecs
The two bright stars are (left) Alpha Centauri and (right) Beta Centauri The faint red star in the center of the red circle is Proxima Centauri ndash the closest star just over 4 ly away
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
Distances between Planets Table
Planet Mean Distance From Sun (millions of miles)
Mean Distance in AU
Mean Diameter (miles)
Mercury 360 039 3031 Venus 671 072 7521 Earth 929 100 7926 Mars 1415 152 4221 Jupiter 4834 520 88734 Saturn 8867 954 74566 Uranus 17827 1914 31566 Neptune 27943 3006 30199 Pluto 36661 3953 1450
In our model 1 inch = 100000 miles or miles 510
One pace is about 1 yard or 36 inches
How many miles are represented by one pace
Seven-league boots ndash sand sculpure
Take a pace this distance across the floor is an enormous space-journey called three million six hundred thousand miles
Calculate distances of all planets from the sun in our model
Planet Distance in paces from Sun or previous planet Distance in paces from Sun
Mercury 10 10
Venus 9 19
Earth 7 26
Mars 14 40
Jupiter 95 135
Saturn 112 247
Uranus 249 496
Neptune 281 777
Pluto 242 1019
AU ndash Astronomical Unit = distance from Earth to Sun = about 93 million miles or miles 71039 Speed of light is 186282 miles per second
How long does the light travel from Sun to Earth
How long from Earth to Mars Why is it important Curiosity Rover httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesmslindexhtml
How long from Sun to Pluto
4 How far is it to the closest star
What is a light year ly = how many miles A parsec pc = about 192 trillion (192times1013) miles
1 ly = about 326 parsecs
The two bright stars are (left) Alpha Centauri and (right) Beta Centauri The faint red star in the center of the red circle is Proxima Centauri ndash the closest star just over 4 ly away
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
Take a pace this distance across the floor is an enormous space-journey called three million six hundred thousand miles
Calculate distances of all planets from the sun in our model
Planet Distance in paces from Sun or previous planet Distance in paces from Sun
Mercury 10 10
Venus 9 19
Earth 7 26
Mars 14 40
Jupiter 95 135
Saturn 112 247
Uranus 249 496
Neptune 281 777
Pluto 242 1019
AU ndash Astronomical Unit = distance from Earth to Sun = about 93 million miles or miles 71039 Speed of light is 186282 miles per second
How long does the light travel from Sun to Earth
How long from Earth to Mars Why is it important Curiosity Rover httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesmslindexhtml
How long from Sun to Pluto
4 How far is it to the closest star
What is a light year ly = how many miles A parsec pc = about 192 trillion (192times1013) miles
1 ly = about 326 parsecs
The two bright stars are (left) Alpha Centauri and (right) Beta Centauri The faint red star in the center of the red circle is Proxima Centauri ndash the closest star just over 4 ly away
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
AU ndash Astronomical Unit = distance from Earth to Sun = about 93 million miles or miles 71039 Speed of light is 186282 miles per second
How long does the light travel from Sun to Earth
How long from Earth to Mars Why is it important Curiosity Rover httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesmslindexhtml
How long from Sun to Pluto
4 How far is it to the closest star
What is a light year ly = how many miles A parsec pc = about 192 trillion (192times1013) miles
1 ly = about 326 parsecs
The two bright stars are (left) Alpha Centauri and (right) Beta Centauri The faint red star in the center of the red circle is Proxima Centauri ndash the closest star just over 4 ly away
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
4 How far is it to the closest star
What is a light year ly = how many miles A parsec pc = about 192 trillion (192times1013) miles
1 ly = about 326 parsecs
The two bright stars are (left) Alpha Centauri and (right) Beta Centauri The faint red star in the center of the red circle is Proxima Centauri ndash the closest star just over 4 ly away
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
5 How big is the Milky way httpwwwatlasoftheuniversecomuniversehtml
Diameter = 100ndash120 kly (31ndash37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1000 ly 100 kly means 100 thousand light years] Thickness is about 1 kly Number of stars is about 200 to 400 billion (billion is 1 and 9 zeros or ) 910 Milky Way is a spiral type galaxy
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
6 How far is it to the next galaxy
Large Magellanic Cloud 163000 ly away from Earth 160000 years ago on Earth from Wikipedia
ldquoEast Africa and more specifically the general area of Ethiopia is widely considered the site of the emergence of early Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic In 2004 fossils found near the Omo river at Kibbish by Richard Leakey in 1967 were redated to 195000 years old the oldest date anywhere in the world for modern Homo Sapiens Homo sapiens idaltu found in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia in 1997 lived about 160000 years agordquo
The nearest large galaxy is Andromeda about 25 million ly away
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
Galaxies can collide ndash depiction of a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda predicted in about 4 billion years from now
7 How big is the Universe
From NOVA
Visible Universe
There is an edge to what we are able to see and could ever possibly see in the universe Light
travels at 300000 kilometers per second (186000 miles per second) Thats top speed in this
universemdashnothing can go fastermdashbut its relatively slow compared to the distances to be traveled
The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is two million light-years away
The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away
We could never see a galaxy that is farther away in light travel time than the universe is oldmdashan
estimated 14 billion or so years Thus we are surrounded by a horizon that we cannot look
beyondmdasha horizon set by the distance that light can travel over the age of the universe
This horizon describes the visible universemdasha region some 28 billion light years in diameter But
what are the horizons of a civilization that inhabits the most distant galaxies we see And what
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
about galaxies at the limits of their vision There is every reason to think that the universe
extends a long way beyond the part of the universe we can see In fact a variety of observations
suggest that our visible patch may be a small fractionmdashmaybe an infinitely small fractionmdashof the
whole universe
Galaxies Constellations and Mythology
What is the difference between a galaxy and a constellation
A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away He ran away to the north spilling the cornmeal along the way The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi The Way the Dog Ran Away
The Queen Cassiopeia wife of king Cepheus of AEligthiopia was beautiful but also arrogant and vain these latter two characteristics led to her downfall In some source she was daughter of Coronus and Zeuxo
Her name in Greek is Κασσιόπη which means she whose words excel
The boast of Cassiopeia was that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than all the Nereids the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus This brought the wrath of Poseidon ruling god of the sea upon the kingdom of Ethiopia
Accounts differ as to whether Poseidon decided to flood the whole country or direct the sea monster Cetus to destroy it In either case trying to save their kingdom Cepheus and Cassiopeia consulted a wise oracle who told them that the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter
Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the seas edge and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus But the hero Perseus arrived in time saved Andromeda killed Cetus and ultimately became her husband
Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment he placed her in the heavens tied to a chair in such a position that as she circles the celestial pole in her throne she is upside-down half the time The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment in some later drawings she is holding a mirror symbol of her vanity while in others she holds a palm leaf a symbolism that is not clear[1]
As it is near the pole star the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere although sometimes upside down
