"Put three grains of sand inside a vast cathedral, and the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than space is with stars." Sir James Jeans I love this quote. It gives me a sense of how infinite space is. I've been reflecting quite a bit lately about the infinite nature of time and space and just how fleeting (and very special) our lives are within it.
For fun, i did some calculations (with the help of the web!) to get some perspective on these things and found the results truly fascinating:
Perspective on time The earth is 4.5 billion years old. But let's say that the earth began only 1 year ago.
This is when other things would have begun:
the universe - 3.3 years ago
the earth - 1 year ago
first one celled organisms - 246 days ago
first jelly fish - 48 days ago
first dinosaurs - 18 days ago
dinosaurs went extinct - 5 days ago
earliest man - 7 hours ago
civilisation began - 3 minutes ago
wheel invented - 34 seconds ago
Jesus born - 14 seconds ago
Battle of Hastings - 6 seconds ago
French Revolution - 1 second ago
Perspective on space In reality, the earth is 93 million miles from the sun. But let's say it was just 1 cm.
This would mean the distance of other things to the sun was:
Mercury - 0.4 cm
Earth - 1.0 cm
Jupiter - 5.2 cm
Uranus - 19.3 cm
Pluto - 39.9 cm
nearest star - 2.5 km!!
If you tried to map out our tiny galaxy, you would need a piece of paper the size of the United States!
I find these figures startling and inspiring. Something to reflect on next time i find myself getting too wrapped up in the drama of my tiny life. Next time i fret about something, i'll ask myself "Is this likely to change the evolution of the human race in the next 5 billion years" - and if the answer is no, tell myself to forget it!!
Mount Everest (Nepal)
