One of the hardest things for people to understand about the universe is just
how big it is. There are three approaches typically used in describing its size. The first, the song, was pioneered by
Monty Python (NSFWish, wireframe of naked woman) and then done just as masterfully by
the Animaniacs. The second, the zoom method has been featured
twice before here on the blue. The third method is the
comparison method (skip to 1:30, unless you like looking at a image of the solar system with terrible distorted orbits), yielding some truly
beautiful videos (this one found via the fantastic
Bad Astronomy blog). These videos go, at most, as far as looking at the local cluster or the Virgo Supercluster. There are two videos that attempt to show the size of the entire universe,
one unsuccessfully (although with great music) and
one successfully. (Warning, all links except the first one, are to YT videos).
[more inside]
posted by Hactar
on Jul 1, 2009 -
74 comments
