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Size Comparison: from Ceres to the entire Universe

An evening pause: Another fun short video attempting to provide some perspective on the vastness of existence.

Hat tip Alton Blevins.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

13 comments

  • Alex Andrite

    ….. But but but ….
    waddabout me?

    5′ 9″ … on Earth ?

    >Great representation. Sharing with local elementary school science teacher.

  • GaryMike

    Interesting that matter clumping is never as large as empty space itself.

    Space obviously is a matter bigot.

    Matterist universe!

    Cancel space.

  • Col Beausabre

    ““Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space.”

    – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

    Also from the Guide

    “”It is known that there is an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.”

  • Chris

    Did I miss Pluto?

  • Ray Van Dune

    In an infinite or merely near-infinite universe, anything that CAN happen, WILL happen.

    Not only that, but it will happen either an INFINITE number of times, or merely a METRIC [deleted] of times.

  • Ray Van Dune: Please reread the rules. You have been here long enough to no them. No obscenities allowed. I have deleted it, and am now warning you. Next time I will suspend you for a week.

  • Max

    I agree, Pluto should have been included. And its moon Chevron as well, which is also gravitationally circular so fits the definition of a planetoid.
    Kepler 22b was included even though there’s much uncertainty as of yet. (an exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the Sun-like star Kepler-22. It is located about 600 light-years (180 pc) from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus)
    Titan, with its thick atmosphere interests me the most. Compressional heating will make the surface warmer then the other moons nearby. (-290f) Much colder than mars, but would only need an insulated tent/ environmental suit to hold in your oxygen. Nearly as large as mercury, lot fluffier making its gravity closer to our moon. Tidally locked to Saturn in a 16 day orbit, the view would be spectacular if you could see through the atmosphere.
    https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/titan/overview/

    Maybe they can take a look for heat signatures soon now that the James Webb is fully focused and ready for science.
    https://phys.org/news/2022-04-nasa-webb-telescope-full-focus.html

  • James Street

    My contribution to an evening pause this Sunday evening.

    This 4 minute music video is inspiring. A musician pulled an Army drill video from YouTube and added music to it one layer at a time using a MIDI.

    Drill Sergeant DePalo X The Kiffness – I Left My Home (Live Looping Cadence Remix)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8q0Kd3AkO0

    “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
    – G.K. Chesterton

  • James Street: If you want to suggest evening pauses, say so and I will email you the guidelines. Posting it as a comment is no where as good.

  • Col Beausabre

    “And its moon Chevron”

    An oil company has its own celestial object?!

    Who’d they bribe?

  • Col Beausabre

    Sol is a yellow dwarf – that’s right, it’s a dwarf. That should put things in perspective.

    “This is the term used to describe a medium-sized star. These stars are also known as “G dwarf stars” and “G-type main-sequence stars. One notable characteristic of these stars is their size. Yellow dwarf stars are between 0.84 and 1.15 times the mass of our sun. ”

    And it’s not yellow, but white.

    “The phrase “yellow dwarf” isn’t quite right, because not all yellow dwarf stars are yellow. Some are white. Our sun is one of these; it is actually white. People perceive it as yellow because we view it through our atmosphere, which distorts its color.”

  • Col Beausabre:

    Re: ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy”; sounds a lot like some of Plato’s ‘Dialogues’. Starts with a premise, and then goes off in a wildly wrong direction, although the argument appears logical. More insight into this in non-Euclidian geometry.

    Re: “And it’s not yellow, but white.” True that. At 5800K, Sol is the only color it can be: white.

  • Col Beausabre

    Blair, You do know that the Guide is self-consciously a parody, don’t you? I mean any series with four volumes that brands itself as a “trilogy”…..

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