You are standing at the
edge of our visible portion of space, some 15 billion light years away. Your
job is to drive us home. Back to Earth.
The point is to realize the place you've been looking for all over to belong,
from the depth of your lonely heart and mind,... is the one you don't bother
to see.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
How? You'll have to look slightly higher up than your country's borders and
your flagpoles.
-
Planet Earth goes spinning around the Sun
> The Sun is focal point of our system >The Solar System
> Nearest star neighbor to our Sun is Proxima Centauri, 4.22 light years away
> The Solar System
and Proxima Centauri are in part of a galaxy named Milky
Way
> The Milky Way galaxy is part of a group of 40 other galaxies called the "Local
Group"
> The "Local Group"
hangs in some bigger clump called the Virgo Cluster
> The Virgo Cluster is part of an even BIGGER clump of stuff called
the Virgo Supercluster.
And the Virgo Supercluster... It is the tiny pixel in
the center of the image above.
...Now you know where to
find the home of the so called "human race". The one that calls itself
most advanced and thinks it lies at the center of it all, living all by itself
in the big universe, wondering if there are other living beings out there, other
life beside the one it knows on planet Earth..
See the solar system.
it's 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001% big.
Let's get going and rev up that engine. We've got a long way home. Hope you don't mind that you'll be 15 billion years older by the time we get there.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
You've come 15 times closer to home than you were before. You've managed to
find enough gas to keep those cylinders running 83 trillion miles. You're a
tad older.
You are now looking at a portion of space that is 7% of the previous view. Each
point you see is not just one but a CLUSTER of galaxies. That would mean we're
looking at something like a few gazillions of galaxies right now. But like they
say on Earth, most likely only the Milky Way is inhabited. I mean, what are
the odds...
You are still headed for the Virgo Supercluster, then you'll be looking for
the Virgo Cluster inside that. Step on the gas. Dead center on your map.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
You've come 10 times closer
than before. Welcome to the Virgo Supercluster.
Each dot represents thousands of galaxies clusters. Home is: in the Virgo Cluster,
that 1 dot to the middle-right with a yellow
name.
You're only 6.3 trillion AU from home now 6.3 trillion times the distance from
Earth to Sun.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
Your field of view out the windshield: 5 Million light years across. You have come 20 times closer. You're inside the Virgo cluster and now visiting the "Local Group" neighborhood. This is the 40-galaxy neighborhood where our Milky Way lives. If we started looking around the Virgo Cluster some we'd see other groups. You can see the Milky Way in the center.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
Your field of view out the windshield: 500,000 light years across. Only 31 billion
times the distance between Earth and Sun.
We have about 10 neighbor galaxy fellows near our Milky Way. Well, this is really
starting to feel like home now, isn't it?
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
Your field of view out the windshield: 50,000 light years across. Only 293,931,971,375,262,208
miles
You're 100 times closer than when you first entered the Virgo Cluster. Doesn't
it feel good to be almost home. Good Ol' fireball Sun is right there in the
blob somewhere.
It's right there in the part of the Milky Way called Orion Arm.
Better make sure that compass is working right and aim right. You don't want
to head for the galaxy dead center now and stray 26,000 light years away. That
doesn't sound like much, but that would be 1.7 billion times the Earth-Sun distance.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
Your field of vision out
the windshield: 5,000 light years across. A mere 316 million times the distance
Earth-Sun.
You are now in Orion's Arm in the Milky Way. Dust off that compass real good.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
Your field of vision outside the windshield: 250 light years across. Only 15
million times the Earth-Sun deal.
Here we can take a good look at a few gazillion cousin stars of our Ol' Sun.
The Sun itself is still not big enough to be visible.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
20 light years across. We've moved 10 times closer. Remember Proxima Centauri? That's our Sun's nearest neighbor star. When we finally make it to Proxima Centauri, we'll only be 4.22 light years away from the Sun and our solar system. That's only 25 trillion miles. Like we said, Proxima Centauri is a close neighbor of our Sun.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
12.5 light years-wide neighborhood.
Now we've really entered the Sun's local bar hangout. This is where our Sun
hangs out and chills out with its buddies and talks about stellar system problems
and stuff. They talk about their respective planets and orbit problems.
Notice again the star system nearest to us is Proxima Centauri. That's our next
target as we move closer. Then we're halfway home.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
Approaching Proxima Centauri that is on the way to the Sun. We've come 12.5
trillion miles closer than before.
Picture adapted from an original by "Atlas of the Universe" by Richard Powell
1000 times closer than before.
Your field of view: 59 billion miles across .
We can vaguely see the Solar system in the distance and see Pluto's ORBIT. Pluto
is the farther most planet of our system, with an orbit the widest around our
Sun.
Once we move close enough, we will have reached the edge of our solar system.
Picture adapted from an original by Nine Planets.org
6 billion miles across.
We've reached the edge of our Solar System.
Where's Earth? We're still 3.6 billion miles from the Sun here. The Earth orbit
is not visible yet. You can sort of make out a faint green circle in the middle
there.
These are only the "outer planets" of our system whose orbits we see.
Pluto is way too far for us to see both its orbit and that of Earth on the same
pixel scale.
SATURN is where our "inner neighborhood" starts.
Picture adapted from an original by Nine Planets.org
We're almost home. If we
fancy thinking that at this point we're shaking hands with Saturn, we only have
over 886 million miles left to go before we hit the sun.
Welcome home, earthling.
Isn't it about time
you realized that is the only place you have.
This section
was made possible by the wonderful site
of Richard Powell from the UK and the 9
Planets.org site.
Those of you who would like
to quickly grasp the basic of the planets in our system are urged to visit the
9Planets site for a great, easy and quick to understand roundup of what's what.
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