A light-year is about 6 trillion miles (or 9 trillion kilometres) and is basically what is sounds like – the distance light travels in one Julian year (another space term we don’t need to get into right now). How do light-years work and how long are they, you might ask. Can you still see your home from here?īecause our galaxy is so big, we can’t measure distance in normal units like kilometres or miles, but rather something known as light-years or a parsec which is equal to 3.26 light-years. That little spec at the point of the arrow is our solar system. This is our galaxy and it consists of dust particles, gas and nearly 1 billion stars the size of our sun and at least 100 billion planets the size of earth and yet you can hardly see them in the vastness of space. Now that’s big! But for the purpose of this journey, you are alone out here where there is sufficient space for 9.4 trillion people… can you possible fathom how big our solar system is?īut let’s continue on this journey out into space… That’s right the sun is the size of 1.3 million earths… that means over 9.4 trillion people (7.3 billion times 1.3 million) could easily fit into the sun with enough space to walk around, build houses and buildings and even roads without ever getting crowded. Our sun is a giant – it’s the biggest object in our solar system and to make you understand how big it is and how small you are on this journey earth could fit 1.3 million times in the sun. Earth and its 7.3 billion population doesn’t seem so big anymore, right? I bet you feel pretty small and alone right about now?Įarth is about 93 million miles (149 million kilometres) from the sun, but looking at the photo it seems quite close. Our planet is situated in just the right spot in our solar system for life to be possible and it’s not even the biggest planet in our solar system. Earth is in sort of a “safe zone”… any closer to the sun and we’d fry – any further out and we’d freeze to death. Can you see your home from here? That little blue ball – the third rock from the sun. Earth’s radius is only 3,959 miles (6,371 kilometres) and it holds a population bigger than your mind could probably understand right? So, on our journey, you are standing somewhere on the earth’s surface… alone. So earth’s a pretty big place, right? Well not really. That’s like, well, a needle in a haystack of needles. Can you even start to imagine how many people that is? I have difficulty to wrap my mind around the fact that musicians can fill stadiums with up to 40, 000 people… that’s not even a fraction of earth’s population. Our planet is home to 7.3 billion people. If that hasn’t made you understand how small you and unimportant you might be, let’s zoom out a bit and see where you and the rest of the 7.3 billion people live their every-day lives:Įarth. You might feel significant as you sit in your home reading this, but just remember that there are just over 7.3 billion people on planet earth – all with the same idea that they are somehow special and different from everyone else… just like you. We think we’re the masters of the universe with our technology, motor vehicles and finance indicators that basically rule the world, but we’re nothing more than just a dust particle when it comes to the big picture.īefore I get to my story, it’s important to make you understand how insignificant you are despite what you might think.Īs we travel on this journey, I want you to imagine that it’s just you alone – nobody else not your mother, your father, your children or your partner… just you. Space, our home, is a big place and holds many secrets mankind has yet to discover. I want to tell you a strange story – the story about my journey, but before I do, I need you to understand the basics of where you live. The right of Eduard Joseph to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the South African Copyright Act of 1978 (as amended). Persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are
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