These Facts About How Big Space Actually Is Will Make Your Head Hurt And Give You An Existential Crisis
Just yesterday, NASA released a brand-new image taken by the James Webb Telescope. It shows thousands of galaxies in space. It's impressive. EXTREMELY impressive.
It's here–the deepest, sharpest infrared view of the universe to date: Webb's First Deep Field.Previewed by @POTUS on July 11, it shows galaxies once invisible to us. The full set of @NASAWebb's first full-color images & data will be revealed July 12: https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I
It's clear from this image that there are countless galaxies we can see. But mostly, it proves just how tiny we (as a planet) are. To put this image in perspective, if you took ONE grain of sand and held it up to the sky, this picture would be that one grain of sand. So basically, nothing.
Let's rewind, though, and start smaller.
First, let's talk about Earth. This image is not "upside down." In space, there is no upside down. The earth just exists out there — up is down and down is up. None of our normal "directions" even matter. IT'S JUST FLOATIN'.
And compared to other planets, we are just a lil' baby. See that red spot on Jupiter? Earth is smaller than it. Our entire planet fits in a pimple on Jupiter.
And Saturn? Saturn is a BIG BOI. Earth is diddly squat compared to that gaseous planet.
But even with how giant they are, every planet could comfortably fit in between Earth and the moon, with room to spare. That's how far away our moon is.
Now let's discuss the sun. It is big and we are small. That's a solar flare on the sun and what Earth would look like next to it.
And another image to give you a better picture.
Our planet is but a speck of dust compared to the sun.
I took a photo of every planet in our solar system and adjusted their size to show how huge our Sun is. Zoom in to see how tiny Earth is in comparison. [OC] from space
See those tiny things to the left of the bigger planet on the bottom right? One of those is Earth.
Mercury is also small. It's that little black dot right there. Basically, the sun is BIG!
But our sun compared to other suns is teensy weensy. It's almost embarassing!
Our Sun ... compared to others stars.