Ever feel like you're insignificant? Well...don't look at this...

This makes me want to have a drink.

A strong one.

Like Dragon's Breath or a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.

can't wait to wreck it all

Certainly puts things into perspective.

Wow.


I don't have any other words than that.

Well, if I'm ~10^27 times smaller than the largest things, but ~10^35 times larger than the smallest things...

I'm above average! Woooooo, go me! And since VY Canis Majoris doesn't usually post on these forums, I don't have to worry too much about being trumped here.

Similarly: if I'm ~10^35 times bigger than the most basic units of the universe, I must be equally more important!

...ok, fine, the humility angle is good too.

Size matters not...

There are many other Powers of Ten websites out there, but this one may have just become my favorite. Thank you.

I have been deeply interested in Cosmology for years. Since the first night I managed, after several hours, to focus a cheap telescope on Jupiter, and then, later, Saturn. I can't remember what possessed me to do that; I think I had come home early from a party and was bored. I had always imagined the giant planet Jupiter to be turning very slowly. Seeing those wide bands of clouds turn and turn so quickly was a surprise. There wasn't much color, because of all the light being reflected off the clouds, but I was seeing this other world for real, with my own eyes, from my parents driveway. Then, the best part happened. I saw a small round black spot appear on one of the bands. It was a shadow, followed by the small moon casting it, slowly revolving across my view. This really affected me, because for the first time, I was no longer just living in the world; I was living in the Universe.

Probably that same month, I laid on my car hood and for the first time just let it all sink in. That "Space is big..." truism. Space, the universe, my tiny mind, swallowed up by all those stars and inky blackness. Surprisingly, it was one of the most calming feelings I had ever experienced. All of my problems shrank into small specks, almost nothingness. The great thing is that it wasn't just a feeling, but was also an entirely scientific observation.

A few years later I was using programs like Celestia, and a better telescope, to look at planets, stars, and galaxies. But unlike so many other firsts in life, those original sensations are still with me. The more I learn about the Universe, the more expansive it becomes. I feel like I have a pretty nice command of the English language, but simply can't explain to you how big the Universe feels to me. The more I've learned about it, the less I've been able to wrap my mind around it.

What's cool is, without that wall of text, I wouldn't be playing City of Heroes. Astronomy and cosmology got me interested in a sub-genre of science fiction called hard science fiction, often written by scientists themselves, to help explain how colonization of other worlds might really happen. Eventually, you know, I needed some lighter reading. At that point, I was really only a couple of years and a few steps away from comic books, but I would have called you nuts if you said it.

*Looks up at long rambling post.*

Well, I couldn't sleep.

well if it makes you feel any better, less insignificant, the brain has so many connections that the formations that it can take outnumber the atoms (possibly particles) in the universe. So your brain is technically more amazing than the universe in some respects... but then it exists within the universe so >.>

Well, in defense of insignificance (), that is like pointing out that there are billions more possible phone numbers than there are phones on Earth. Those possibilities haven't occurred and don't exist, while all the atoms of the universe do exist. And you're probably discounting quantum particles, which may outnumber themselves many times over (no, that's not a typo, it's weird science [Edit: I'm being silly here, but I wouldn't be surprised if some physicists might say this was a valid enough way of looking at it]).

You hold the Universe at a disadvantage when you make a contest between possible outcomes, and outcomes that actually exist. That's not a fair contest! For example, the number of possible connections in existing human brains is hugely dwarfed by the number of atoms that could have formed out of various energy-to-matter reactions that were quite possible, but didn't occur.

P.S. Unless they did occur, somewhere else, and unless all of those possible neural synaptic connections do exist, somewhere out there; in which case our entire Universe might be insignificant!

Well, considering some of the theories about the multiverse, our universe is immensely insignificant.

Look at the size of that giant earthworm O.o. Longer then a human didn't even know they got that big.

also Minecraft world LOL

Also what would happen just theoretically speaking if we could instantly teleport to the edge of the universe? Well nothing the universe would just grow as it expands at a faster rate then the speed of light itself can move. But what's beyond that say you could move even faster theoretically speaking cause we all that's impossible cause they faster we move the greater our mass.

Anyways that's a ramble I believe beyond our universe is other universes add infinity which also means everything that can happens happens times infinity.

Very clever and brilliantly executed.

I knew Minecraft was big but I didn't know it was that big (bigger than Neptune).

Nah, didn't make me feel insignificant... but the cake was tasty.

I agree that it's a wondrous thing to have a telescope. I currently only have my dad's 40+ year old 6" refractor but watching Jupiter for a week this last year reminded me and filled me with awe at just how fast Jupiter's satellites move around it.

Awesome! It's still not my favorite scale comparison.

It's a great big universe, and we're all really puny.
We're just tiny little specks, about the size of Mickey Rooney.
It's big and black and inky, and we are small and dinky.
It's a big universe and we're not.

to quote a famous book.

Space is big, really really big.