Good question – How can a human being get a perspective on the size of the universe – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks

[winxclubfantotally]

Okay, so if the Earth is like 10000x larger compared to a single human...but the Earth is only a speck compared to our sun...but our sun is only a mere, average, dwarf star, amung like 7 sextilion (yes, thats a real number, if I spelled it correctly) stars in our galxy ALONE. And our own galaxy is only one of like billions of galaxies.........*mind explodes* X_X

Do not try to comprehend the size of the universe, my friend...

[tubeytubetuber]

So the known universe forms a globe with a radius that light would take 13.7 billion years to travel? That's epic bro! What else is out there? Similar stuff or what?

[DeusFoarthir]

"Every Great Question Ever Asked From Mankind, Comes from Their arrogance" Morros ' The God Hunter'

[tubeytubetuber]

Comedy?

[sabedra2000]

WAT THE FUCK!

[JunkyHawk]

Think of alle the worlds that exist out there

[themakerofmine]

I got lost as soon as we left this small peace of dust that we call earth. Great video.

[shagster1970]

We are a long way from help. Great vid.

[Astarkat]

the big bang may still be going on.... cosmic sex? second thrust....

[igotapickel]

Great video. Indeed, we are miniscule in the universal big picture. However, my big picture lies here on the Terran landscape. If trees could speak, they'd say "more trees". Earth biology is all about "more" and "keep the seed alive!" Here, on earth, human's are the only species which destroys its own seeds/eggs & embryos willingly. Horrible isn't it? People will brake for a squirrel in the road while driving to the abortion appointment. Yet our little real estate in the universe screams "LIFE!"

[afstanton]

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

[AntiHeroXI]

I felt small at the Himalayas...

[sazuist]

We are very2x small~ D:

[Istalriify]

Nothing like a wonderful appreciation for how small and insignificant we are in the grand scheme.

[StormRaven332]

We are so small and so meaningless. A race of idiots, Living in a galaxy which is bairly out of its diapers.

[aSheeple]

@StormRaven332 in the same what that our eyes are the part of us that we use to observe ourselves, we are what the universe uses to observe itself. of all the bits of matter that exist, we are the only known part to ask why. meaningless we are not.

[willrocks41]

@aSheeple We are not useful to the universe in the way our eyes are. Just because we can observe something doesnt give us meaning. We have no purpose, no reason. but we're still here, on this rock, making more of ourselves. But really, does the universe even have meaning? Its just there, we dont even know how many there are, but hell were all alive, why not live till we die, observe, discover and accomplish what we can on this rock. Maybe one day our species can impact the universe a bit more.

[aSheeple]

@willrocks41 asking what the purpose of our lives iare, is like asking what the purpose of an electron is. purpose is function. the electrons purpose is to help form the structure of atoms, and each individuals purpose is to help form the structure of society. the universe is the sum of all its parts, each with its function, its like a giant painting, it is self defined.

[toadbear]

@StormRaven332

You're wrong, we're the smartest race so far. Is any other know creature more intelligent? Also, fail spelling.

[satsumamoon]

@StormRaven332 That statement could not be further from the truth! Wake up to who you are! You can learn how to use that other 95% of your brain.

[Hikmat503]

@StormRaven332

You are part of the whole thing and the whole thing is part of you. You might feel small and worthless, that's a illogical thought because you are worth enough to exist, don't you think? I mean meditate and get in touch with the feeling of aliveness. You have all the tools you need to follow your joy and passion on this physical realm. I just you should take note of it.

[mrfinn99]

I find it funny when the religious claim that god is behind the glory of the universe...when for thousands of years they claimed there was only the earth, no universe and humans dominated it all. You can't have it every way. Stop piggy backing science as proof of the things you tried so hard to disprove.

[TheRonMorales]

"When I see Your heavens, the works of Your fingers,

The moon and the stars that You have prepared,

What is mortal man that You keep him in mind...?"

-David's Psalm 8:3, 4 (c.1077 B.C.E.)

[SamdeSquirell]

@TheRonMorales Pay attention to how in this Psalm, God only made one moon.

Well I guess all those other moons can go fuck themselves, eh?

Appreciate the video, don't piggy back your religious views on it.

[TheRonMorales]

@SamdeSquirell: Hm, quoting from 3,000-year old literature is "religious piggy-backing", eh? Or is the transcendentalist Emerson, who lived 2 centuries ago, more to your taste?

"If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years, how man would marvel and stare."

In any case, I can vouch that more than half of Earth's population will express their feelings of the numinous in religious terms, whether you like it or not. (e.g. Apollo8's Genesis1:1 in seeing the first earthrise) Pax.

[SamdeSquirell]

@TheRonMorales That's nicer, yes.

I had no problem with you attaching a religious connection to the video, it's just that the psalm is blatantly wrong (one moon) and frankly people have said much more beautiful things about the heavens than anyone in the bible (Emerson himself for instance).

Personally, I think the world would be a better place if people didn't quote literature as often (especially not religious texts) and instead tried to write something beautiful.

But that's just me.

[URProductions]

@TheRonMorales Amen, Brother

[bofhd89o]

"our cosmic horizon in space and in time" is that a kind of limitation? whats after that? does it end at some point(all the universes)

[zbrooo]

@bofhd89o The cosmic horizon is the observable universe, look that up on google because I can't explain it due to the character count. We don't know what lies outside of the observable universe but it's plausible that the observable universe is only a tiny fraction of the entire universe. Also, at 3:21 the reason there is two empty triangles is because our own galaxy blocks us from seeing there and the reason it looks quite bear in places it simply because its so far away that its hard to map.

[jsmith02816]

Many people, when faced with the incomprehensible vastness of the universe, think it shows us how small we are, and indeed it does. However, some believe that the real purpose is to show us how unfathomably BIG our God really is.

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge

Psalm 19:1-4

[mikeborja1]

to me this is like a giagantic machine and we are nothing but a diminute nut moving at the pace that the big bang, gravity and all the physical forces are dictatying. To say that there is no god is to say that this giagantic cosmical clock was built by nothing that everything is an accident and life and civilization were not meant to happen. The creator is out there in a shape we might not even start to imagine, religion and atheism, that's nothing but another human conflict.

[Helge129]

@mikeborja1 Take your religion, and leave.

[stevew1904]

It seems to me that this accurate mapping of the entire universe shows us that our Earth is at the dead centre of it. Would you agree with that? So if everything was created by a Big Bang and sent scattering in all directions, how come our Earth formed at the dead centre of the universe? Shouldn't we expect that the universe would consist of a shell of matter with nothing in the middle, as it was all scattered evenly in every direction and at the same speed?

[actgif68]

@stevew1904

your comment isn't sound with any logic or science and hinges on the belief that your interpretation of a youtube video has decoded the structure of the universe..LOL.. read the text in the video..the black areas are just parts we haven't mapped yet..giving it the illusion of being the middle

it also only appears to be in the center because thats where we started to zoom out from

[annyeongsarang]

@eye5973 and how do you know that?

[royalspin]

Im a major science fan but like everyone in existence right now.I still ask the questions-Why am I here ? Who or what created all this ? and What does it all mean ? Maybe instead of arguing about answers none of truly know for sure, we should just enjoy what we have, while we are alive in the here and now. Science and faith both ask the same questions only in different formats.Clearly something created all of us and everything.Only the labeling is different.

[UnknownXV]

@royalspin Well, no. There's no reason to think something created us. At least, not something intelligent.

We simply do not know, not yet.

[royalspin]

@UnknownXV By something I meant the universe which is of course a thing.Some call it God but who the hell really knows right ? Surely the Universe did make us because we know that we are made of the stuff of dead stars.Basically we are nuclear waste.For all we know we could be living in a hologram or something like that.So many possibilities ,so many questions .

[aciolan]

Because we are so small and insignificant to our Universe we have to work hard, put our forces together and do our best in evolving in technical ways. We need knowledge. Forget religion, forget war...

[kimflie]

This video is not real, this is just atheist propaganda lies!

[royalspin]

@kimflie No its not real.Its based on what we know presently.Atheist lies ? To me it shows the wonders of all creation and inspires me more than going to any man made church.What is real is the Universe all around us.Look up from time to time away from your book and you just might see it.I see God everyday all around me and in everything and even in you.

[kimflie]

@royalspin I agree, but I dont choose the word "God". I was just joking btw. :-)

[TheToxicRadio]

@kimflie you trollin' 0/10

[kimflie]

@TheToxicRadio 

[cfx3]

OH MY, THE INSIGNIFICANCE IS UNBEARABLE

[Zurround100]

is it possible that the human brain is actually incapable of fully understanding the universe or universes? Just as a dog can never understand algebra and an ant can never understand the tricks and training we can teach a dog?

[halonone]

@Zurround100 I guess it's possible, but the reasons a dog can't understand algebra would be different from us not understanding the universe. I don't believe humans are mentally incapable of understanding the universe, it just takes a lot of research, evidence, technology, and patience. Whereas a dog is just mentally incapable of grasping algebra.

[iMpRiSoNeD44]

@Zurround100 its possible thats why we continue to advance because we can learn more

[royalspin]

@Zurround100 Lawrence Krauss made this analogy as well as so many great minds.A real good analogy to be sure.I would say the same is true of advanced life forms that may be all around us but we are just not wired to see them or understand them even if we could.This doesn't make us any less of a being just existing in another reality.We view the universe through our own lenses and have a great deal to learn.

[trile666]

GlassWWENBA let me explain something to you>>>> Universe is really big>>>>do you think someone create billions of stars, planets, rocks, all kind of thinks just to watch us and help us lol ! ! ! I can bet that in our universe there is 100000000000000 more planets that support life and that there are 1000000000000000000000000000 more speacies like humans!! We are stuck in space, we need to advance in our tehnological ways not in our religious shit ! ! ! we need to go to stars and not to kill !

[AleximusMaximus]

How has this not got millions of hits? I'm an astrophysics undergraduate and this is probably the best rendition of the scale of the observable universe I have EVER seen.

[HateMeS4L]

@AleximusMaximus because a lot of people just dont care about the stuff that matters the most

[AleximusMaximus]

@HateMeS4L Trufax.

[royalspin]

@HateMeS4L I feel your pain.I guess a kid who can spaz out in front of his web cam and make an idiot out of himself is more important .I do care about all of this and was lured into Astronomy at the age of 7 and never looked back.It appalls me that so many cant even show the curiosity and wonderment of a child in what exists all around us.Some of us are awake and some of us dreaming.Those of us who ask ,are labeled a geek.Go figure

[HateMeS4L]

@royalspin amen brother.

[trile666]

only nooob can think that, if there is god he is watching us and helping us LOL LOL nooobs !! ! !

[GlassWWENBA]

@trile666 How can u say there is no god?

[richardmtl]

we look so vulnerable yet in a safe place

[Sforschondetta]

simply beautiful

[knytebyte]

We are still primitive...trying to figure out our own world,never mind the universe.

[popularcandy]

we. are. fucking. microscopic. wow

[dragossorin85]

we are a virus along milions that axist

[nickmooreimages]

This video is awesome. I feel so tiny

[H4I2I2EE]

It's impossible for us to be alone in a universe this big. Having said that, this video is a good illustration as to why we haven't encountered alien civilizations yet. Radio signals only 70 light years out isn't far enough. I read in the news they recently found a planet in the habitable zone of another star about 20 light years away. That planet must not have intelligent life if at all cuz by now I am guessing we would have detected each others broadcasts.

[jollyZOLLIE]

Who would dislike this? What goes through someone's head? The universe TOO big or something? That makes no sense.

[98RamMagnum]

We are insignificant in the Universe, most of us should know this already, those that need something like this to show them that are living in their own little dream.

[AndMyHeart]

i get homesick while watching this.

[dudecomestocum]

how come earth is not supported by elephants and turtle anymore?

[chief37]

i still cant fucking believe they ditched pluto like that

[donmutti0]

один из лучших роликов на эту тему =)

[qureship]

That there are such distances makes us feel less alone... and more special

And were there not countless wonders I would be more amazed,,, (at timid space)

But how far the reach of a teacher race? And how deep the scope to farm... not mingle?

I could not fathom the thought of the man were i but a speck of dust

[emekajji]

great to see THE MIND, what we are living in, git it? :D

[MyWorldView]

The Total Perspective Vortex

[ixataca]

long dead stars and galaxies

[Awhiffofsuspicion]

i recently had a question answered by a nasa astrophysicist called Hans Krimm, the question was, if the sun were scaled down to the size of an atom would we be able to see the appropriatly scaled down universe. his answer was impressive.

a star is to the universe as an atom is to Jupiter

[TheRonMorales]

@Awhiffofsuspicion: I'm not exactly sure if Krimm's approximation is near enough: after all, the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. (see the red-shifts of distant Type1a supernovae)

[Awhiffofsuspicion]

@TheRonMorale The sun is a

typical star and its diameter is about 10^9 meters. An average atom is about

10^-10 meters in diameter. The calculation for the diameter of the universe,

taking into account its age and expansion rate (see the Universe wikipedia

article) is about 10^27 meters. The scale difference between star and atom is

10^-10/10^9 = 10^-19. Scaling the universe by the same factor gives

10^27*10^-19 = 10^8 meters, or about the size of Jupiter.

this was 6 months ago.

[Awhiffofsuspicion]

@TheRonMorales he goes on to say

So roughly speaking, a star is to the universe as an atom is to Jupiter.

However, there are _many_ more atoms in Jupiter than there are stars in the

universe.  There are around 10^22 stars in the universe, but I estimate more

like 10^54 atoms in Jupiter, showing how much of the universe is really empty

space between stars.

its a wonderful analogy, and no doubt soon we'll be saying as an atom is to our sun and so on.

[cosmictyger]

Limited view. If we go on forever, the milky way would be too small. If God makes a "new Heaven" and a "new Earth", understand the present "heavens and the Earth" are compelling enough! We choose deadly thinking/living, constantly as a race. Many of us are learning not to be destructive. What was once a wonder to us, seems closed as we choose self destruction over exploration.... It's a thought, perhaps a challenge.... Go Virgin Galactic... Don't wait for NASA!!!!

[GotJesus31]

No way this was made by accident. Some one/something had to design and plan this out. Far to complex to be a made by a random cosmic explosion.

[dragonoth87]

There MUST be life other than us out there

[robsurfin]

We probably only know of 1 billionth of all the information that exist...and will never know as much as Barack Obama..!

[AcesFOKings]

Videos like this make me think why anything, ANYONE, would make something in this proportion, all for us.

I just don't see it, there has to be no God, has to be, it's just not possible

[TsKostka]

@TheRonMorales hmm what about Avatar?

[TheRonMorales]

@TsKostka: Well, the movie Avatar does not exactly employ an FTL (faster-than-light) drive for transportation. Sleep/hibernation was used to transport most of the crew. Anyways, the "floating mountains of Pandora" can be scientifically explained by the intense gravitational tug-of-war between Pandora and Polyphemus (its gas giant). But the huge tidal effects, secondary radiation from the gas giant and the locked synchronization/zero axial rotation of Pandora should render it uninhabitable.

[RoyceRK]

I feel tiny.

[RicardoBraido1985]

Only wonderful!!!

[xInsurgency]

This video gives me a bit of intuition on how badly it sucks not to be immortal. The fact that I wont be able to see all of this in my lifetime, or humanity is depressing :(

[VitaminTMan]

@xInsurgency

Pffff, you would WANT to see all that?? I think you might get tired after the 14 millionth star you saw. Even most of the planets would be gas or inhospitable... Don't worry man. I'll tell you what, when you die ifyou're lucky your brain will flood with DMT which is a powerful hallucinogen. Your death will literally be a trip more profound than any other experience you could have in life.... Of course then you'll be dead... but damn... Awesome.

[xInsurgency]

@VitaminTMan

Haha yeah, interesting way of putting it. And hey, maybe i'd be tripping so hard that time is no longer significant, thus i'd be perceiving an "eternal" - awesome reality.

We really need to engineer such a drug with no side effects, like SOMA.

[MIIC013]

@xInsurgency You could probably get that feeling without drugs or death - it's called meditation.

[xInsurgency]

@MIIC013

I'll look into it, but I'm usually rather skeptical about such per se.

[Digimon575]

why cant we map the areas that are empty at

'light travel from Earth: 5 billion years?'

[TheRonMorales]

@Digimon575: I'm not sure, but I think it's due to our Sun being placed middle in the relative void between the Sagittarius & the Perseus arms of our highly-flattened galaxy. Obviously, we can't see behind the galactic center (to the direction of Sagittarius), & so also the dusty galactic arm opposite it. By happy coincidence, these obstacles only obscures a few degrees to our view of the rest of the universe. But this Prism of the Unseen is huge as we approach inter-filamentary distances. :)

[Digimon575]

@TheRonMorales good point why dont we send a ship to leaveb the galaxy?

[TheRonMorales]

@Digimon575: We can and we did. At least, we sent a space probe that'll be working until 2025. (Voyager1) But it won't be leaving the galaxy: there's nothing to study in the void outside the galactic plane. Instead, it's blazing a path @ 17 km/sec towards the inner curve of the galactic spiral arms the Sun is traveling in. In any case, traveling (even at the ultimate light-speed) outside of the plane of the galaxy would be deadly boring: the shortest distance out of it is 500 lightyears.

[TheRonMorales]

@Digimon575: & so, unless we figure out how to safely collapse space-time (black holes are doing that, but it's not exactly "safe") & safely travel through that "short-cut", (-a highly unlikely event) let's wait until we're living forever. But, relativistically, it doesn't make sense to wait for someone who's in a galactic round-trip: they'll come back & meet their loved ones in fossilized cemeteries. With our present short life-span, galactic travel WILL be a one-way trip. Very sad & pointless.

[Digimon575]

@TheRonMorales If this was like Star Trek or Star Wars it would be easy. Imagine Earth as Corucant, Pluto as Hoth or Jupiter as Bespin.

[TheRonMorales]

@Digimon575: Well, those movies disregard a fundamental property of the Universe: that time is NOT universal. For ships traveling at near light-speed, their clocks slow down compared to a planet-bound clock (see the Twin paradox). Not to mention bringing with the ship an infinite amount of fuel to propel its increasing mass as it approaches "c." Movie-makers should take into account Einstein's E=mc2, among other physical laws. So far, I've not seen FTL movies that pass real science. Yet.

[MrRockett24]

AND WE THINK WERE SPECIAL...........

[systems69]

I'm guessing 'heaven' is just a sub-concious state you go into when you die.

[Thingamajigs]

I don't really see how this is any proof of no "God".

If you think of as God as the one portrayed in holy books, then that makes sense. I can view this video and think that possibly, there was a creator.

I am not a religious individual. if there was any truth in religion, it's buried under alot of man-made bull. language itself has limitations, any "devine" intervention can never, ever be expressed with it. Neither can it be fully comprehended by us. It's like trying to teach an ape algebra

[xInsurgency]

@Thingamajigs

But the monkey species, or moreover the chimpanzee has 98% of our DNA, so it is theoretically possible to teach them such, though we just do not view them as complex beings. Similarly, take the following thought experiment that an alien civilization that is 2% more advanced than us exists, we'd be apes to them!

The correct analogy you are after is - Trying to explain a colour to a blind man.

[Dimitri0809]

How heck are we supposed to fiqure out our purpose when we can't even figure out our own.

It's meaningless up to this point.

[asg3hb]

And there's no guarantee that this is the ONLY universe!

[iMpRiSoNeD44]

@asg3hb dont believe in multi universe its all theory. theres is no other way how life could of taken its course

[asg3hb]

@iMpRiSoNeD44 you state "theres is no other way how life could of taken its course". You effectively preclude any other situations/conditions/processe­s/possibilities. I include them... thus I say - there are no guarantees of it. I simply state the question to which we cannot definitively provide an answer.

[MotCatalin]

@asg3hb Such as there is no guarantee that THERE ARE OTHERS. ;)

[asg3hb]

@MotCatalin agreed. But both ways.. there are just no guarantees... it doesn't preclude one option from the other.

[scuffieduffie]

@asg3hb

how could they know that?

[eye5973]

@CropDuster33 there is no god..

[tmacW327]

@eye5973 It's funny, because when i see this video, it only proves to me there is a God. It's all in perspective.

[MegaBeast17]

@eye5973 there is a GOD but theres no real religion

[mikeborja1]

@eye5973 then who or what put everything we see here? this infinite cosmic clock machinery that has rules and balance. These rules we humans are starting to understand, not create, just understand like a child who is learning to understand words. There has to be something out there, our sences tell us so, our soul, our human nature makes us look to the sky looking for an answer. How can you explain this huge space was once millions and millions of times smaller than a single grain of sand?

[iMpRiSoNeD44]

@eye5973 do u have a brain...no i dont see it....its because u believe u have...belief is the key...

[zero0cripton]

@iMpRiSoNeD44 Don't try to prove that believing is the key with an example that can be proven by simple observation. As said by filosofers: In order to believe in someting you must have no proof that it actually exists"

[iMpRiSoNeD44]

@zero0cripton i wonder who said that lol!. but anyways im not evoking religious beliefs all im saying that i believe theres a creator out there the one we call god.

[jesselyna]

@eye5973 god doesnt nessesairly have to be the one in religious books. When I look at this video I'm amazed of the mystery that nothing never seems to end in space. Everything is a constant continuum. That to me is godly

[iMpRiSoNeD44]

@eye5973 then theres no you

[iMpRiSoNeD44]

weed opend my third eye so that i can see the whole world completely..figuratively speaking.

[MotCatalin]

@eye5973 your own opinion...you can't be sure if it is a god and at the same time you can't be sure if it isn't ;)

[Sherbiny25]

@eye5973 Shut up!

[CropDuster33]

I still don't see how god could have done this

[yummpyummp]

@CropDuster33 your a fool! be quiet now

[jmacisdope2]

@CropDuster33 well according to the Bible he simply SPOKE IT into exstance from NOTHING thats right from NOTHING..i kno its hard to fathom dats y u gotta believe it by FAITH

[CropDuster33]

@jmacisdope2 something that absurd definitely would have to be taken on faith.

[jmacisdope2]

@CropDuster33 somthing out there HAS TO BE ETERNAL theres no other way to explain it...an eternal universe is impossible..the big bang theory has problems cuz it doesnt go to the SOURSE of the bang so somthing had to exist that was A.immaterial=spirit of some sort and B.realyyy really REAAAAAAALLLYY powerful!!