Friday, May 01, 2009

Some perspective on our place in the universe...

...is contained in this picture. (Click on it to make it bigger.)

(Tip of the hat to Rob Neyer. Also, I don't vouch for any accuracy or inaccuracy in the picture on the other side of the link.)
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2 comments:

Justin said...

Can't say about the stars without looking stuff up, but the HDF bit at the bottom is way oversimplified. And the "8 times larger than the Milky Way" bit is just plain wrong - or at least I have no idea what they're trying to say. The MW is not a remarkably large galaxy, substantially larger objects are neither unusual nor unsupported by theory.

8:42 PM, May 02, 2009
Mason said...

The thing I like about the picture is how things that laypeople think of as large become very tiny in comparison. I think the visualization does a nice job of that. Oversimplification is forgivable for an audience of laypeople (and can be necessary, though I can't say whether it's necessary here). Being wrong is a bit different. :)

I figured you'd be able to comment on the accuracy of the link.

1:47 AM, May 03, 2009

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