VY Canis Majoris

[AOA]

Earth. It is a big world, IMO. The United Kingdom alone, which is tiny on the map has at least 12 major cities - with London being just one of them. London would appear as a small *square* on this scale, and it is big city.

Earth relative by scale to the Sun.

*Mind you; must pay attention to size of Earth in comparison with the Sun to begin with.*

---and---

The Sun relative to VY Canis Majoris; the largest star known.

... Pretty astounding, eh?

 

[Beargryllz]

It's a really fucking big star

 

[Curator]

It's a really fucking big star

Ditto

 

[Valiant]

The spaces in between stuff in space is more astounding, still.

 

[Thisica]

Ditto

Ditto.
[I love using that word!]

 

[AOA]

The spaces in between stuff in space is more astounding, still.

Indeed. Presumably *if* the universe is as big as they say it is, with galaxies, and billions of them, perhaps they should rather concentrate on the local star systems that are already mind-blowing by scale, any way. You're correct in that fact, because VY Canis Majoris would only go as far out as Jupiter, or in between Mars, and Jupiter, if it were in the center of our Solar System. Thus, the Solar System itself is much *larger* than VY. There is also a region in outer space, around the Solar System, about a light year away called the Oort Cloud. This is presumably as far as the Sun's gravitational effect reaches, and it is filled with Comets, and any such debris. From this outset, even VY would look like *nothing* (let alone the Sun) because the center of the Solar System is that far away from it! It's crazy. You might as well have 10,000 stars as big as VY in this region, even, and it would seem like these are the *viewable* stars in the night sky. The closest stars to us (Proxima Centauri, and Alpha) are about 4.5 light years away from the center of our Solar System, each around the size of the Sun, and we supposedly see *many* stars in the night sky, many of which are many times farther from us than those two. It reaches me to a very important conclusion. How do we know the universe is not actually only as far as, say, the Oort Cloud? It is a bomb of a distance away; one light year, to one and a half.

 

[Litvyak]

You need to check this out:

http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

How do they estimate the size of the universe if it extends beyond the observable borders?

 

[AOA]

You need to check this out:

http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

How do they estimate the size of the universe if it extends beyond the observable borders?

Amazing.

 

[Valiant]

Yeah, the size of it all is mind-blowing... Makes you realize why it is important to invent FTL travel.
I do really wonder when they will do that... If there's anything that I pray for, beyond my personal needs, it's that.
We need to be able to spread and colonize in order to last more than a few million years and evolve as a species.
That would be truly remarkable... We've seen so many things happen in the last hundred years that I hope it will accelerate further soon.

I love thinking about this.

 

[Such Irony]

Yeah, the size of it all is mind-blowing... Makes you realize why it is important to invent FTL travel.
I do really wonder when they will do that... If there's anything that I pray for, beyond my personal needs, it's that.
We need to be able to spread and colonize in order to last more than a few million years and evolve as a species.
That would be truly remarkable... We've seen so many things happen in the last hundred years that I hope it will accelerate further soon.

I love thinking about this.

I've wondered that too. Is it possible to travel faster than light. Will it ever be possible? Or is there some limits from the laws of physics that can never be overcome? If it does happen, I'm sure it won't be in my lifetime, which is too bad because I'd love to see humanity advance to that stage.

It's both fascinating and kind of depressing, thinking about how planet earth is just one small speck in the universe.

I

 

[Valiant]

I've wondered that too. Is it possible to travel faster than light. Will it ever be possible? Or is there some limits from the laws of physics that can never be overcome? If it does happen, I'm sure it won't be in my lifetime, which is too bad because I'd love to see humanity advance to that stage.

It's both fascinating and kind of depressing, thinking about how planet earth is just one small speck in the universe.

I

It is theoretically possible, and as such it can be done if we manage to figure out how.
Read up on the "Heim theory" and the "Alcubierre drive".
I think it's mostly fascinating that we're just one little speck... Probably means there are more specks.

 

[Litvyak]

We need to be able to spread and colonize in order to last more than a few million years and evolve as a species.

Not only that. A new space race would bring great short and medium term advantages:

• Technological cooperation could create a spill-over in political integration.
• Exploration is a direct route to scientific advancement (possibly a positive feedback).
• Exploiting resources on other celestial bodies could create a new golden age for our planet.
• Returning to space would give a healthier direction to the (pop) culture of our age.

 

[Valiant]

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. Man, it would be pretty nice to have a Star Trek society (but with some resemblance of taste in home decor and clothes, etc).

Not only that. A new space race would bring great short and medium term advantages:

• Technological cooperation could create a spill-over in political integration.
• Exploration is a direct route to scientific advancement (possibly a positive feedback).
• Exploiting resources on other celestial bodies could create a new golden age for our planet.
• Returning to space would give a healthier direction to the (pop) culture of our age.

 

[Octarine]

It's not the size that counts!

*feels slightly tinier than usual*

 

[AOA]

The Sun relative to VY Canis Majoris; the largest star known.

+1

Talked about this with my family yesterday.

 

[AOA]

[VY Canis Majoris - Size Analysis.]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcz4vGvoxQA&feature=related"]VY Canis Majoris.[/YOUTUBE]

 

[figsfiggyfigs]

*points to location*

 

[AOA]

LOL. You know where it is in the night sky? What captivates me most about Canis Majoris's size comparison to the Sun's is the Sun is already super big (and super vast); about 850,000 miles in diameter, yet it's practically just a grain of salt compared to Canis Majoris.

 

[AOA]

Hold on a minute. It would take 1100 years (on an airliner, at 900km/hour) to circle around Canis Majoris just once;- that's at least 33 generations!!!

 

[OrionzRevenge]

The spaces in between stuff in space is more astounding, still.

Yeppers.

using mace's image:

If the sun were scaled to the size of a tennis ball, then the Earth would be in orbit about 23 feet away...
AND the distance to the Nearest star would about equal the distance between New York and Denver.

Going the other way with the vastness of nothing, If the proton in a hydrogen atom were a basketball sitting on the 50 yard line
then the electron would be dime-sized in orbit at the fringe of the stadium.