Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

Scale of the Universe


Recommended Posts

For some reason I can only picture the universe as a an ovoid of about 65x35cms.

Never has been any bigger then that to me. And yes it is all contained in there.

Main concern is: Why ovoid and not spherical?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thankyou very much. Love the bit with the stars, they just get bigger and bigger. Makes you realise how small the sun is. Its also interesting looking at those stars in the night sky and knowing there relative size.

Can you see the biggest galaxy from earth with a telescope?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can you see the biggest galaxy from earth with a telescope?

Well it seems accepted that the biggest known galaxy is IC 1101, whch you can indeed see from earth with a telescope. Though judging by its picture on Wikipedia (IC 1101 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), it looks like a tough object to see or photograph, even though the damn thing is over 5 million light years across! Crumbs etc.

Of course it's almost certain that that's NOT the largest galaxy in the Universe - just the biggest one we've spotted so far - and it may well be that the biggest one is outside the observable Universe so we'll never know about it.

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An absolute delight! great fun to get an idea of the scale of things. The one that always gets me is the emptiness within an atom. However, there were one or two things i feel i need to point out...

Pedant mode activated!

Preons are entirely hypothetical, and in fact there are good theoretical and observational reasons to believe they do not exist, he probably should have mentioned that.

The observable universe is larger than 14 billion light years! although it seems against common sense that we could be seeing things that are farther away than the speed of light times the age of the universe, we in fact can, due to the expansion of the intervening space. The actual figure is about 45 billion light years in any direction.

As for the actual size of the universe... i don't think anyone has any idea. i'm not so sure about it being infinite, but i'd hardly be surprised if it turned out that our observable universe was but an atom to the entire thing...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

toml42

As for the actual size of the universe... i don't think anyone has any idea. i'm not so sure about it being infinite, but i'd hardly be surprised if it turned out that our observable universe was but an atom to the entire thing...

i can relate to that

we are clever, but not that clever, i just wonder where we stand on the 'clever' scale of all intellegent life that is out there..........probably sharing a spot with the amoeba

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As for the actual size of the universe... i don't think anyone has any idea. i'm not so sure about it being infinite, but i'd hardly be surprised if it turned out that our observable universe was but an atom to the entire thing...

Ha, there's the basis for a theory thought up while under the influence of narcotics :)

"Dude... what if we're just the result of someone striking a match in a much bigger universe than our own?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.