Starship Asterisk*

The Scale of the Universe Interactive

Explanation: What does the universe look like on small scales? On large scales? Humanity is discovering that the universe is a very different place on every proportion that has been explored. For example, so far as we know, every tiny proton is exactly the same, but every huge galaxy is different. On more familiar scales, a small glass table top to a human is a vast plane of strange smoothness to a dust mite -- possibly speckled with cell boulders. Not all scale lengths are well explored -- what happens to the smallest mist droplets you sneeze, for example, is a topic of active research -- and possibly useful to know to help stop the spread of disease. The above interactive flash animation, a modern version of the classic video Powers of Ten, is a new window to many of the known scales of our universe. By moving the scroll bar across the bottom, you can explore a diversity of sizes, while clicking on different items will bring up descriptive information.

<< Previous APOD

Discuss Any APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

Quite a project. For a rather interesting perspective, run the zoom slider all the way to the end (either way), then fast-zoom to the other end.

It's always nice to be able to play with the whole universe and not hurt yourself.

the size of known universe to the size of universe is what the size of electron to known universe ..

Far out!!

I've seen some similar presentations, but this is the best yet... great job, Cary & Michael!

Some of the concepts were quite different... the stacked heights of all humanity? The cumulative orbital distance the earth has traveled around the sun? That took some creative thinking!

Call me "politically incorrect" (but say it nicely, please) but I prefer "Ayers Rock" to "Uluru". Wasn't that the sound made by the Martians in H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds"?

I didn't understand "Minecraft World" even with the hint.

Anyway, great job, even if not technically a "photo".

I love this sort of stuff.
I was educated as a physicist, but turned to the dark side and got a regular job in industry. The interactive nature of this piece would have certainly helped me all those years ago trying to figure it all out. Oh, but we only had a main-frame and green screen 80 column monitors. You kids, don't know you're born etc..

I especially like the several "observable limits" (small scale) where the wavelength of the radiation you are using to observe with, is right there in the picture.

Very nice job.

I recommend NASA or ESA sending a space probe out to Russell's teapot to settle this issue once and for all!

I think the blue whale should be given more credit - it's not just the largest animal there is, it's the largest animal there has ever been. (So far as we know, of course...)

I loved it; and it was fun scrolling from the tiniest to the largest!

Great APOD, very well done project.

ritwik wrote:the size of known universe to the size of universe is what the size of electron to known universe ..

Not really. The size of the electron and the size of the known (observable) Universe are known to high accuracy. The size of the Universe as a whole is completely unknown, with estimates ranging from just slightly larger than the observable Universe to infinite.

Wow!! What a trip.

I check into APOD every day and today's is the best yet!

That was the most fun I have had on a Monday morning in a long, long time.Thanks!

They forgot KING KONG.....TEN TIMES AS BIG AS A MAN!!!!


:---[===] *

What a perspective! One of the best APODs ever!!

This was a lot of fun. Though I wish they had not made the atoms look like Bohr's model.

Wow, I'm actually ahead of APOD on this. That is rara. I read about this thing on Kevin Kelly's blog.

Wow the best, that was a lot of info. And we humans can not understand infinite.

Incredible! I have never taken so long to read an APOD! Very nice, and as somenone else said already, different perspectives. Minecraft is a video game, where you build things (I had to look it up). Whew! What a trip! And it really made you see the perspective in size. Congratulations to to the authors. Hopefully all human beings would take to heart the fact that planet earth is where we live, and there really is nowhere else if we destroy it. And we should all be accepting and live in peace, curtailing our multiplying. 7 billion at a standstill would still allow for all to get fed.

Why is the Top Quark (172,000 MeV) "smaller" than an Up Quark (2.4 MeV)? Is there any such thing as 'density' at these scales?

Sandstone wrote: I didn't understand "Minecraft World" even with the hint.

Minecraft is a pc game. it's virtual world is about 4,080,576,000 kms, that's about 8 times the size of planet earth. 510,072,000 km2.