Speaking of the scale of our universe, it is first necessary to show the splendor of distance and spatial isolation of its constituent objects.This is often accompanied by certain difficulties in perception. We know that the light from a vacuum moves at a speed of about 300 thousand kilometers per second, and the light year is about 10,000 billion kilometers (9.46 trillion km). In addition, modern astronomy uses a special unit to estimate the distance between stars, parsecs, which is 3.26 light years.
But for ordinary people who have no professional mathematical knowledge of humans, this number is very relative and vague.And begin to study the universe we need to realize the dimensions of the spatial characteristics of the solar system and the distance that separates it from nearby objects.
If we imagine that our Sun is a 7-centimeter ball, then on this scale our Earth will be a 0.5 mm sphere that spins at a distance of 760 cm from the sun. Jupiter will be located about 40 meters, and Pluto will be at three hundred meters.This is our star system - the sun billiard ball and nine grains in the tens and hundreds of meters away. And the closest star, Proxima Centauri, in this coordinate will be as far as 2,000 kilometers (4.24 light years). This clearly represents the distance between stars.
The remaining object of the so-called local star group lies farther away. Alpha of the Great Dog - Sirius or Holiday - 8.6 light years, Luman 16 - 6.58 seconds. year, WISE 0855-0714 - 7.18 st. year, Wolf 359 - 7.78 St. year, Lalande 21185 - 8.29 is over. year, Alpha Small Dog - Procyon - 11.4 light years.
But our system and the stars closest to it are just unimportant parts of a collection of intricately organized stars and nebulae called our Galaxy, Milky Way Galaxy.And if we change our view further not to the stars, and to the galaxy, we see, for example, that the nearest large galaxy - Andromeda galaxy M31, or NGC 224 is away from us in 2.52 million light years. Two and a half million light years.
Even the entire universe in the exact definition of the researchers is "a handful of diamond dust is released into space indefinitely." A big void and only a small amount of material found in this space ...