"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 [Smith’s], but that's just peanuts to space."

-The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Our look at the Universe will begin

on Earth.

Source: bestanimations.com

The Moon is the nearest world to

Earth.

Source: bestanimations.com

It is about 250,000 miles from Earth.

Source: NASA

The Sun is the nearest star to

Earth.It is 93,000,000

miles from Earth.

Golly, Gee Whiz Fact.

Source: Dan Heller Photography

The Sun is 370 times

farther from Earth

than Moon.

The fastest something can move is the speed

of light.Light travels 186,000

miles per second.

Source: recoverybridge.org

Distances in terms of the speed of light.

Moon - 1.5 light seconds.Sun- Eight light minutes.Solar System Diameter

– Twelve light hours (eight billion miles).

When we leave the Solar System, we need a new unit of measurement.

The new unit is called a “Light

Year.”A light year is the distance light travels in one year.One light year = six trillion miles.

Leaving the Solar System, our next stop will be at the

Alpha Centauri system.

Source: Goddard Spaceflight Center

Source: Wikipedia

The system is four light years away.

Source: Goddard Spaceflight Center

Move out 12.5 light years.

Note: Pictures and information that follows comes from http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/12lys.html

Thirty-three stars are

within 12.5 light years

Move out 250 light years.

260,000 stars are in this

area.

Move out 5,000 light years (Orion

Arm).600,000,000 stars are in this area.

At 50,000 light years, you see the

Milky Way.

There are about

200,000,000,000 stars in the

Milky Way.

More exploration of the Milky Way (click the

picture below).

Source: Atlas of the Universe

The Sun

Move out 500,000 light years.

The Local Group – 13 galaxies

What is the Nearest Galaxy to the Milky

Way?

Source: Cal Tech 2MASS Galaxy Redshift Catalog (XSCz)

Move out 5,000,000 light

years.49

galaxies

Move out 100,000,000 light

years.The

Virgo Super

cluster – 200

galaxy groups, 53,000

galaxies

Move out 1,000,000,000 light

years.

Neighboring Super

clusters – 100; 240,000

clusters, 63,000,000

galaxies

Move out 14,000,000,000 light

years (the visible universe).10,000,000

super clusters,

25,000,000,000 clusters, 7.4 trillion galaxies,

30 billion trillion stars.

It sure looks like the Universe is full

of stuff, right?

WRONG!

What’s between the

stars?

Space is mostly made of empty space!

Galaxies can pass thru each other with no stars

colliding!

How does the Sun relate to the Milky

Way?

The Sun is one star out of

200,000,000,000.

How does the Sun relate to the

Universe?

The Sun is one star out of thirty

billion trillion.

How does the Milky Way

compare to the Universe?It belongs to one

of 10,000,000 super clusters.

How does the Milky Way

compare to the Universe?

It belongs to one of 25,000,000,000

clusters.

How does the Milky Way

compare to the Universe?It is one

of 7.4 trillion

galaxies.Source: Hubble Space Telescope