Did you know that the Universe we observe has fairly definite boundaries? We are used to associating the Universe with something infinite and incomprehensible. However, modern science, when asked about the “infinity” of the Universe, offers a completely different answer to such an “obvious” question.
According to modern concepts, the size of the observable Universe is approximately 45.7 billion light years (or 14.6 gigaparsecs). But what do these numbers mean?
The first question that comes to the mind of an ordinary person is how can the Universe not be infinite? It would seem that it is indisputable that the container of all that exists around us should have no boundaries. If these boundaries exist, what exactly are they?
Let's say some astronaut reaches the boundaries of the Universe. What will he see in front of him? A solid wall? Fire barrier? And what is behind it - emptiness? Another Universe? But can emptiness or another Universe mean that we are on the border of the universe? After all, this does not mean that there is “nothing” there. Emptiness and another Universe are also “something”. But the Universe is something that contains absolutely everything “something”.
We arrive at an absolute contradiction. It turns out that the boundary of the Universe must hide from us something that should not exist. Or the boundary of the Universe should fence off “everything” from “something”, but this “something” should also be part of “everything”. In general, complete absurdity. Then how can scientists declare the limiting size, mass and even age of our Universe? These values, although unimaginably large, are still finite. Does science argue with the obvious? To understand this, let's first trace how people came to our modern understanding of the Universe.
Expanding the boundaries
Since time immemorial, people have been interested in what the world around them is like. There is no need to give examples of the three pillars and other attempts of the ancients to explain the universe. As a rule, in the end it all came down to the fact that the basis of all things is the earth's surface. Even in the times of antiquity and the Middle Ages, when astronomers had extensive knowledge of the laws of planetary movement along the “fixed” celestial sphere, the Earth remained the center of the Universe.
Naturally, even in Ancient Greece there were those who believed that the Earth revolves around the Sun. There were those who spoke about the many worlds and the infinity of the Universe. But constructive justifications for these theories arose only at the turn of the scientific revolution.
In the 16th century, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus made the first major breakthrough in knowledge of the Universe. He firmly proved that the Earth is only one of the planets revolving around the Sun. Such a system greatly simplified the explanation of such a complex and intricate movement of planets in the celestial sphere. In the case of a stationary Earth, astronomers had to come up with all sorts of clever theories to explain this behavior of the planets. On the other hand, if the Earth is accepted as moving, then an explanation for such intricate movements comes naturally. Thus, a new paradigm called “heliocentrism” took hold in astronomy.
Many Suns
However, even after this, astronomers continued to limit the Universe to the “sphere of fixed stars.” Until the 19th century, they were unable to estimate the distance to the stars. For several centuries, astronomers have tried to no avail to detect deviations in the position of stars relative to the Earth’s orbital movement (annual parallaxes). The instruments of those times did not allow such precise measurements.
Finally, in 1837, the Russian-German astronomer Vasily Struve measured parallax. This marked a new step in understanding the scale of space. Now scientists could safely say that the stars are distant similarities to the Sun. And our luminary is no longer the center of everything, but an equal “resident” of an endless star cluster.
Astronomers have come even closer to understanding the scale of the Universe, because the distances to the stars turned out to be truly monstrous. Even the size of the planets’ orbits seemed insignificant in comparison. Next it was necessary to understand how the stars are concentrated in .
Many Milky Ways
The famous philosopher Immanuel Kant anticipated the foundations of the modern understanding of the large-scale structure of the Universe back in 1755. He hypothesized that the Milky Way is a huge rotating star cluster. In turn, many of the observed nebulae are also more distant “milky ways” - galaxies. Despite this, until the 20th century, astronomers believed that all nebulae are sources of star formation and are part of the Milky Way.
The situation changed when astronomers learned to measure distances between galaxies using . The absolute luminosity of stars of this type strictly depends on the period of their variability. By comparing their absolute luminosity with the visible one, it is possible to determine the distance to them with high accuracy. This method was developed in the early 20th century by Einar Hertzschrung and Harlow Scelpi. Thanks to him, the Soviet astronomer Ernst Epic in 1922 determined the distance to Andromeda, which turned out to be an order of magnitude greater than the size of the Milky Way.
Edwin Hubble continued Epic's initiative. By measuring the brightness of Cepheids in other galaxies, he measured their distance and compared it with the redshift in their spectra. So in 1929 he developed his famous law. His work definitively disproved the established view that the Milky Way is the edge of the Universe. Now it was one of many galaxies that had once been considered part of it. Kant's hypothesis was confirmed almost two centuries after its development.
Subsequently, the connection discovered by Hubble between the distance of a galaxy from an observer relative to the speed of its removal from him, made it possible to draw a complete picture of the large-scale structure of the Universe. It turned out that the galaxies were only an insignificant part of it. They connected into clusters, clusters into superclusters. In turn, superclusters form the largest known structures in the Universe—threads and walls. These structures, adjacent to huge supervoids (), constitute the large-scale structure of the currently known Universe.
Apparent infinity
It follows from the above that in just a few centuries, science has gradually fluttered from geocentrism to a modern understanding of the Universe. However, this does not answer why we limit the Universe today. After all, until now we were talking only about the scale of space, and not about its very nature.
The first who decided to justify the infinity of the Universe was Isaac Newton. Having discovered the law of universal gravitation, he believed that if space were finite, all its bodies would sooner or later merge into a single whole. Before him, if anyone expressed the idea of the infinity of the Universe, it was exclusively in a philosophical vein. Without any scientific basis. An example of this is Giordano Bruno. By the way, like Kant, he was many centuries ahead of science. He was the first to declare that stars are distant suns, and planets also revolve around them.
It would seem that the very fact of infinity is quite justified and obvious, but the turning points of science of the 20th century shook this “truth”.
Stationary Universe
The first significant step towards developing a modern model of the Universe was taken by Albert Einstein. The famous physicist introduced his model of a stationary Universe in 1917. This model was based on the general theory of relativity, which he had developed a year earlier. According to his model, the Universe is infinite in time and finite in space. But, as noted earlier, according to Newton, a Universe with a finite size must collapse. To do this, Einstein introduced a cosmological constant, which compensated for the gravitational attraction of distant objects.
No matter how paradoxical it may sound, Einstein did not limit the very finitude of the Universe. In his opinion, the Universe is a closed shell of a hypersphere. An analogy is the surface of an ordinary three-dimensional sphere, for example, a globe or the Earth. No matter how much a traveler travels across the Earth, he will never reach its edge. However, this does not mean that the Earth is infinite. The traveler will simply return to the place from which he began his journey.
On the surface of the hypersphere
In the same way, a space wanderer, traversing Einstein’s Universe on a starship, can return back to Earth. Only this time the wanderer will move not along the two-dimensional surface of a sphere, but along the three-dimensional surface of a hypersphere. This means that the Universe has a finite volume, and therefore a finite number of stars and mass. However, the Universe has neither boundaries nor any center.
Einstein came to these conclusions by connecting space, time and gravity in his famous theory. Before him, these concepts were considered separate, which is why the space of the Universe was purely Euclidean. Einstein proved that gravity itself is a curvature of space-time. This radically changed early ideas about the nature of the Universe, based on classical Newtonian mechanics and Euclidean geometry.
Expanding Universe
Even the discoverer of the “new Universe” himself was not a stranger to delusions. Although Einstein limited the Universe in space, he continued to consider it static. According to his model, the Universe was and remains eternal, and its size always remains the same. In 1922, Soviet physicist Alexander Friedman significantly expanded this model. According to his calculations, the Universe is not static at all. It can expand or contract over time. It is noteworthy that Friedman came to such a model based on the same theory of relativity. He managed to apply this theory more correctly, bypassing the cosmological constant.
Albert Einstein did not immediately accept this “amendment.” This new model came to the aid of the previously mentioned Hubble discovery. The recession of galaxies indisputably proved the fact of the expansion of the Universe. So Einstein had to admit his mistake. Now the Universe had a certain age, which strictly depends on the Hubble constant, which characterizes the rate of its expansion.
Further development of cosmology
As scientists tried to solve this question, many other important components of the Universe were discovered and various models of it were developed. So in 1948, George Gamow introduced the “hot Universe” hypothesis, which would later turn into the big bang theory. The discovery in 1965 confirmed his suspicions. Now astronomers could observe the light that came from the moment when the Universe became transparent.
Dark matter, predicted in 1932 by Fritz Zwicky, was confirmed in 1975. Dark matter actually explains the very existence of galaxies, galaxy clusters and the Universal structure itself as a whole. This is how scientists learned that most of the mass of the Universe is completely invisible.
Finally, in 1998, during a study of the distance to, it was discovered that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. This latest turning point in science gave birth to our modern understanding of the nature of the universe. The cosmological coefficient, introduced by Einstein and refuted by Friedman, again found its place in the model of the Universe. The presence of a cosmological coefficient (cosmological constant) explains its accelerated expansion. To explain the presence of a cosmological constant, the concept of a hypothetical field containing most of the mass of the Universe was introduced.
Modern understanding of the size of the observable Universe
The modern model of the Universe is also called the ΛCDM model. The letter "Λ" means the presence of a cosmological constant, which explains the accelerated expansion of the Universe. "CDM" means that the Universe is filled with cold dark matter. Recent studies indicate that the Hubble constant is about 71 (km/s)/Mpc, which corresponds to the age of the Universe 13.75 billion years. Knowing the age of the Universe, we can estimate the size of its observable region.
According to the theory of relativity, information about any object cannot reach an observer at a speed greater than the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s). It turns out that the observer sees not just an object, but its past. The farther an object is from him, the more distant the past he looks. For example, looking at the Moon, we see as it was a little more than a second ago, the Sun - more than eight minutes ago, the nearest stars - years, galaxies - millions of years ago, etc. In Einstein’s stationary model, the Universe has no age limit, which means its observable region is also not limited by anything. The observer, armed with increasingly sophisticated astronomical instruments, will observe increasingly distant and ancient objects.
We have a different picture with the modern model of the Universe. According to it, the Universe has an age, and therefore a limit of observation. That is, since the birth of the Universe, no photon could have traveled a distance greater than 13.75 billion light years. It turns out that we can say that the observable Universe is limited from the observer to a spherical region with a radius of 13.75 billion light years. However, this is not quite true. We should not forget about the expansion of the space of the Universe. By the time the photon reaches the observer, the object that emitted it will be already 45.7 billion light years away from us. years. This size is the horizon of particles, it is the boundary of the observable Universe.
Over the horizon
So, the size of the observable Universe is divided into two types. Apparent size, also called the Hubble radius (13.75 billion light years). And the real size, called the particle horizon (45.7 billion light years). The important thing is that both of these horizons do not at all characterize the real size of the Universe. Firstly, they depend on the position of the observer in space. Secondly, they change over time. In the case of the ΛCDM model, the particle horizon expands at a speed greater than the Hubble horizon. Modern science does not answer the question of whether this trend will change in the future. But if we assume that the Universe continues to expand with acceleration, then all those objects that we see now will sooner or later disappear from our “field of vision”.
Currently, the most distant light observed by astronomers is the cosmic microwave background radiation. Peering into it, scientists see the Universe as it was 380 thousand years after the Big Bang. At this moment, the Universe cooled down enough that it was able to emit free photons, which are detected today with the help of radio telescopes. At that time, there were no stars or galaxies in the Universe, but only a continuous cloud of hydrogen, helium and an insignificant amount of other elements. From the inhomogeneities observed in this cloud, galaxy clusters will subsequently form. It turns out that precisely those objects that will be formed from inhomogeneities in the cosmic microwave background radiation are located closest to the particle horizon.
True Boundaries
Whether the Universe has true, unobservable boundaries is still a matter of pseudoscientific speculation. One way or another, everyone agrees on the infinity of the Universe, but interprets this infinity in completely different ways. Some consider the Universe to be multidimensional, where our “local” three-dimensional Universe is only one of its layers. Others say that the Universe is fractal - which means that our local Universe may be a particle of another. We should not forget about the various models of the Multiverse with its closed, open, parallel Universes, and wormholes. And there are many, many different versions, the number of which is limited only by human imagination.
But if we turn on cold realism or simply step back from all these hypotheses, then we can assume that our Universe is an infinite homogeneous container of all stars and galaxies. Moreover, at any very distant point, be it billions of gigaparsecs from us, all the conditions will be exactly the same. At this point, the particle horizon and the Hubble sphere will be exactly the same, with the same relict radiation at their edge. There will be the same stars and galaxies around. Interestingly, this does not contradict the expansion of the Universe. After all, it is not just the Universe that is expanding, but its space itself. The fact that at the moment of the Big Bang the Universe arose from one point only means that the infinitely small (practically zero) dimensions that were then have now turned into unimaginably large ones. In the future, we will use precisely this hypothesis in order to clearly understand the scale of the observable Universe.
Visual representation
Various sources provide all sorts of visual models that allow people to understand the scale of the Universe. However, it is not enough for us to realize how big the cosmos is. It is important to imagine how concepts such as the Hubble horizon and the particle horizon actually manifest themselves. To do this, let's imagine our model step by step.
Let's forget that modern science does not know about the “foreign” region of the Universe. Discarding versions of multiverses, the fractal Universe and its other “varieties”, let’s imagine that it is simply infinite. As noted earlier, this does not contradict the expansion of its space. Of course, let's take into account that its Hubble sphere and particle sphere are respectively 13.75 and 45.7 billion light years.
Scale of the Universe
Press the START button and discover a new, unknown world!
First, let's try to understand how large the Universal scale is. If you have traveled around our planet, you can well imagine how big the Earth is for us. Now imagine our planet as a grain of buckwheat moving in orbit around a watermelon-Sun the size of half a football field. In this case, Neptune’s orbit will correspond to the size of a small city, the area will correspond to the Moon, and the area of the boundary of the influence of the Sun will correspond to Mars. It turns out that our Solar System is as much larger than the Earth as Mars is larger than buckwheat! But this is just the beginning.
Now let’s imagine that this buckwheat will be our system, the size of which is approximately equal to one parsec. Then the Milky Way will be the size of two football stadiums. However, this will not be enough for us. The Milky Way will also have to be reduced to centimeter size. It will somewhat resemble coffee foam wrapped in a whirlpool in the middle of coffee-black intergalactic space. Twenty centimeters from it there is the same spiral “crumb” - the Andromeda Nebula. Around them there will be a swarm of small galaxies of our Local Cluster. The apparent size of our Universe will be 9.2 kilometers. We have come to an understanding of the Universal dimensions.
Inside the universal bubble
However, it is not enough for us to understand the scale itself. It is important to realize the Universe in dynamics. Let's imagine ourselves as giants, for whom the Milky Way has a centimeter diameter. As noted just now, we will find ourselves inside a ball with a radius of 4.57 and a diameter of 9.24 kilometers. Let’s imagine that we are able to float inside this ball, travel, covering entire megaparsecs in a second. What will we see if our Universe is infinite?
Of course, countless galaxies of all kinds will appear before us. Elliptical, spiral, irregular. Some areas will be teeming with them, others will be empty. The main feature will be that visually they will all be motionless while we are motionless. But as soon as we take a step, the galaxies themselves will begin to move. For example, if we are able to discern a microscopic Solar System in the centimeter-long Milky Way, we will be able to observe its development. Moving 600 meters away from our galaxy, we will see the protostar Sun and the protoplanetary disk at the moment of formation. Approaching it, we will see how the Earth appears, life arises and man appears. In the same way, we will see how galaxies change and move as we move away from or approach them.
Consequently, the more distant galaxies we look at, the more ancient they will be for us. So the most distant galaxies will be located further than 1300 meters from us, and at the turn of 1380 meters we will already see relict radiation. True, this distance will be imaginary for us. However, as we get closer to the cosmic microwave background radiation, we will see an interesting picture. Naturally, we will observe how galaxies will form and develop from the initial cloud of hydrogen. When we reach one of these formed galaxies, we will understand that we have covered not 1.375 kilometers at all, but all 4.57.
Zooming out
As a result, we will increase in size even more. Now we can place entire voids and walls in the fist. So we will find ourselves in a rather small bubble from which it is impossible to get out. Not only will the distance to objects at the edge of the bubble increase as they get closer, but the edge itself will shift indefinitely. This is the whole point of the size of the observable Universe.
No matter how big the Universe is, for an observer it will always remain a limited bubble. The observer will always be at the center of this bubble, in fact he is its center. Trying to get to any object at the edge of the bubble, the observer will shift its center. As you approach an object, this object will move further and further from the edge of the bubble and at the same time change. For example, from a shapeless hydrogen cloud it will turn into a full-fledged galaxy or, further, a galactic cluster. In addition, the path to this object will increase as you approach it, since the surrounding space itself will change. Having reached this object, we will only move it from the edge of the bubble to its center. At the edge of the Universe, relict radiation will still flicker.
If we assume that the Universe will continue to expand at an accelerated rate, then being in the center of the bubble and moving time forward by billions, trillions and even higher orders of years, we will notice an even more interesting picture. Although our bubble will also increase in size, its changing components will move away from us even faster, leaving the edge of this bubble, until each particle of the Universe wanders separately in its lonely bubble without the opportunity to interact with other particles.
So, modern science does not have information about the real size of the Universe and whether it has boundaries. But we know for sure that the observable Universe has a visible and true boundary, called respectively the Hubble radius (13.75 billion light years) and the particle radius (45.7 billion light years). These boundaries depend entirely on the observer's position in space and expand over time. If the Hubble radius expands strictly at the speed of light, then the expansion of the particle horizon is accelerated. The question of whether its acceleration of the particle horizon will continue further and whether it will be replaced by compression remains open.
There were times when the world of people was limited to the surface of the Earth under their feet. With the development of technology, humanity has expanded its horizons. Now people are thinking about whether our world has boundaries and what is the scale of the Universe? In fact, no one can imagine its real size. Because we don't have any suitable reference points. Even professional astronomers imagine (at least in their imagination) models reduced many times over. It is important to accurately correlate the dimensions of objects in the Universe. And when solving mathematical problems, they are generally unimportant, because they turn out to be just numbers that the astronomer operates with.
About the structure of the solar system
To talk about the scale of the Universe, we must first understand what is closest to us. First, there is a star called the Sun. Secondly, the planets orbiting around it. Besides them, there are also satellites moving around some of them. And we must not forget about
The planets on this list have been of interest to people for a long time, since they are the most accessible for observation. From their study, the science of the structure of the Universe began to develop - astronomy. The star is recognized as the center of the solar system. It is also its largest object. Compared to the Earth, the Sun is a million times larger in volume. It only seems relatively small because it is very far from our planet.
All planets of the solar system are divided into three groups:
- Earthly. It includes planets that are similar to Earth in appearance. For example, these are Mercury, Venus and Mars.
- Giant objects. They are much larger in size compared to the first group. In addition, they contain a lot of gases, which is why they are also called gaseous. These include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
- Dwarf planets. They are, in fact, large asteroids. One of them, until recently, was included in the composition of the main planets - this is Pluto.
The planets “do not fly away” from the Sun due to the force of gravity. But they cannot fall on a star due to high speeds. The objects are really very “nimble”. For example, the speed of the Earth is approximately 30 kilometers per second.
How to compare the sizes of objects in the Solar System?
Before you try to imagine the scale of the Universe, it is worth understanding the Sun and the planets. After all, they can also be difficult to correlate with each other. Most often, the conventional size of a fiery star is identified with a billiard ball, the diameter of which is 7 cm. It is worth noting that in reality it reaches about 1,400 thousand km. In such a “toy” model, the first planet from the Sun (Mercury) is at a distance of 2 meters 80 centimeters. In this case, the Earth's ball will have a diameter of only half a millimeter. It is located at a distance of 7.6 meters from the star. The distance to Jupiter on this scale will be 40 m, and to Pluto - 300.
If we talk about objects that are outside the Solar System, then the closest star is Proxima Centauri. It will be removed so much that this simplification is too small. And this despite the fact that it is located within the Galaxy. What can we say about the scale of the Universe? As you can see, it is virtually limitless. I always want to know how the Earth and the Universe are related. And after receiving the answer, I can’t believe that our planet and even the Galaxy are an insignificant part of a huge world.
What units are used to measure distances in space?
A centimeter, a meter and even a kilometer - all these quantities turn out to be insignificant already within the solar system. What can we say about the Universe? To indicate the distance within the Galaxy, a value called a light year is used. This is the time it would take for light to travel over one year. Let us remember that one light second is equal to almost 300 thousand km. Therefore, when converted to the usual kilometers, a light year turns out to be approximately equal to 10 thousand billion. It is impossible to imagine, therefore the scale of the Universe is unimaginable for humans. If you need to indicate the distance between neighboring galaxies, then a light year is not enough. An even larger value is needed. It turned out to be a parsec, which is equal to 3.26 light years.
How does the Galaxy work?
It is a giant formation consisting of stars and nebulae. A small part of them is visible every night in the sky. The structure of our Galaxy is very complex. It can be considered a highly compressed ellipsoid of revolution. Moreover, it has an equatorial part and a center. The equator of the Galaxy is mostly composed of gaseous nebulae and hot massive stars. In the Milky Way, this part is located in its central region.
The solar system is no exception to the rule. It is also located near the equator of the Galaxy. By the way, the main part of the stars forms a huge disk, the diameter of which is 100 thousand and the thickness is 1500. If we return to the scale that was used to represent the Solar System, then the size of the Galaxy will be commensurate. This is an incredible figure. Therefore, the Sun and the Earth turn out to be crumbs in the Galaxy.
What objects exist in the Universe?
Let's list the most important ones:
- Stars are massive self-luminous balls. They arise from an environment consisting of a mixture of dust and gases. Most of them are hydrogen and helium.
- CMB radiation. They are those spreading in space. Its temperature is 270 degrees Celsius. Moreover, this radiation is the same in all directions. This property is called isotropy. In addition, some mysteries of the Universe are associated with it. For example, it became clear that it arose at the moment of the big bang. That is, it exists from the very beginning of the existence of the Universe. It also confirms the idea that it is expanding equally in all directions. Moreover, this statement is true not only for the present time. It was like that at the very beginning.
- That is, hidden mass. These are those objects of the Universe that cannot be studied by direct observation. In other words, they do not emit electromagnetic waves. But they have a gravitational effect on other bodies.
- Black holes. They have not been sufficiently studied, but are very well known. This happened due to the massive description of such objects in science fiction works. In fact, a black hole is a body from which electromagnetic radiation cannot spread due to the fact that the second cosmic velocity on it is equal to. It is worth remembering that it is the second cosmic velocity that must be communicated to the object in order for it to leave the space object.
In addition, there are quasars and pulsars in the Universe.
Mysterious Universe
It is full of things that have not yet been fully discovered or studied. And what has been discovered often raises new questions and related mysteries of the Universe. These include even the well-known “Big Bang” theory. It is really only a conditional doctrine, since humanity can only guess at how it happened.
The second mystery is the age of the Universe. It can be calculated approximately by the already mentioned relict radiation, observation of globular clusters and other objects. Today, scientists agree that the age of the Universe is approximately 13.7 billion years. Another mystery - if there is life on other planets? After all, it was not only in the solar system that suitable conditions arose and the Earth appeared. And the Universe is most likely filled with similar formations.
One?
What is outside the Universe? What is there where the human gaze has not penetrated? Is there something beyond this border? If so, how many universes are there? These are questions that scientists have yet to find answers to. Our world is like a box of surprises. It once seemed to consist only of the Earth and the Sun, with a few stars in the sky. Then the worldview expanded. Accordingly, the boundaries have expanded. It is not surprising that many bright minds have long come to the conclusion that the Universe is only part of an even larger formation.
Dimensions of objects in the Universe in comparison (photo)
1. This is Earth! We live here. At first glance it is very large. But, in fact, compared to some objects in the Universe, our planet is negligible. The following photos will help you at least roughly imagine something that simply cannot fit into your head.
2. The location of planet Earth in the solar system.
3. Scaled distance between the Earth and the Moon. Doesn't look too far away, does it?
4. Within this distance you can place all the planets of our solar system, beautifully and neatly.
5. This small green spot is the continent of North America, on the planet Jupiter. You can imagine how much larger Jupiter is than the Earth.
6. And this photo gives an idea of the size of planet Earth (that is, our six planets) compared to Saturn.
7. This is what Saturn's rings would look like if they were around the Earth. Beauty!
8. Hundreds of comets fly between the planets of the solar system. This is what comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, on which the Philae probe landed in the fall of 2014, looks like, compared to Los Angeles.
9. But all objects in the solar system are negligible compared to our Sun.
10. This is what our planet looks like from the surface of the Moon.
11. This is what our planet looks like from the surface of Mars.
12. And this is us from Saturn.
13. If you fly to the edge of the solar system, you will see our planet like this.
14. Let's go back a little. This is the size of the Earth compared to the size of our Sun. Impressive, isn't it?
15. And this is our Sun from the surface of Mars.
16. But our Sun is only one of the stars in the Universe. Their number is greater than the grains of sand on any beach on Earth.
17. This means that there are stars much larger than our Sun. Just look at how tiny the Sun is compared to the largest star known today, VY, in the constellation Canis Major.
18. But not a single star can compare with the size of our Milky Way Galaxy. If we reduce our Sun to the size of a white blood cell and reduce the entire Galaxy by the same amount, then the Milky Way will be the size of Russia.
19. Our Milky Way Galaxy is huge. We live somewhere around here.
20. Unfortunately, all the objects that we can see with the naked eye in the sky at night are placed in this yellow circle.
21. But the Milky Way is far from the largest Galaxy in the Universe. This is the Milky Way compared to Galaxy IC 1011, which is 350 million light-years from Earth.
22. But that's not all. This Hubble image captures thousands upon thousands of galaxies, each containing millions of stars with their own planets.
23. For example, one of the galaxies in the photo, UDF 423. This galaxy is located ten billion light years from Earth. When you look at this photo, you are looking billions of years into the past.
24. This dark piece of the night sky looks completely empty. But when zoomed in, it turns out that it contains thousands of galaxies with billions of stars.
25. And this is the size of a black hole compared to the size of the Earth’s orbit and the orbit of the planet Neptune.
One such black abyss could easily suck in the entire solar system.
> Scale of the Universe
Use online interactive scale of the universe: real dimensions of the Universe, comparison of space objects, planets, stars, clusters, galaxies.
We all think of dimensions in general terms, such as another reality, or our perception of the environment around us. However, this is only part of what measurements actually are. And above all, the existing understanding measurements of the scale of the Universe– this is the best described in physics.
Physicists suggest that measurements are simply different facets of perception of the scale of the Universe. For example, the first four dimensions include length, width, height and time. However, according to quantum physics, there are other dimensions that describe the nature of the universe and perhaps all universes. Many scientists believe that there are currently about 10 dimensions.
Interactive scale of the universe
Measuring the scale of the Universe
The first dimension, as mentioned, is length. A good example of a one-dimensional object is a straight line. This line only has a length dimension. The second dimension is width. This dimension includes length; a good example of a two-dimensional object would be an impossibly thin plane. Things in two dimensions can only be viewed in cross section.
The third dimension involves height, and this is the dimension we are most familiar with. Combined with length and width, it is the most clearly visible part of the universe in dimensional terms. The best physical form to describe this dimension is a cube. The third dimension exists when length, width and height intersect.
Now things get a little more complicated because the remaining 7 dimensions are associated with intangible concepts that we cannot directly observe but know exist. The fourth dimension is time. It is the difference between past, present and future. Thus, the best description of the fourth dimension would be chronology.
Other dimensions deal with probabilities. The fifth and sixth dimensions are associated with the future. According to quantum physics, there can be any number of possible futures, but there is only one outcome, and the reason for this is choice. The fifth and sixth dimensions are associated with the bifurcation (change, branching) of each of these probabilities. Basically, if you could control the fifth and sixth dimensions, you could go back in time or visit different futures.
Dimensions 7 to 10 are associated with the Universe and its scale. They are based on the fact that there are several universes, and each has its own sequence of dimensions of reality and possible outcomes. The tenth and final dimension is actually one of all possible outcomes of all universes.
