The Logic Lifeline

A logical approach to sorting out world events. Where logic, opinion and speculation are combined to produce a reasoned, but entertaining reading experience. The unofficial hometown conservative blog of Woodridge, Il

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

SkyePuppy wows us with a pictorial post

Frequent visitor SkyePuppy has posted a series of pictures that show us how small we really are. The first photo makes us feel good to see how much bigger Earth is when compared to Mars, Venus and Mercury and "li'l" Pluto. We are then compared to the big boys of the solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, etc. While we are admiring the size of Jupiter, we are treated to a comparison of such planets to our sun. The amazement is only beginning as we then see that our sun looks like a marble next to a beach ball when compared to the star Arcturus. Finally, as all confidence of comprehension of size leaves our minds (actual comprehension probably left with the next continent on Earth) Arcturus is pictured as a pea compared to the hot air balloon of the star Antares.

While our minds begin to disintegrate as we ponder such magnitude, our friend Chris Malott throws in some more info from another website that states:

"In the constellation of Hercules, there is a star which could contain 100 million of Antares. The largest known star, Epsilon, could easily swallow up several million stars the size of the one in Hercules!"
As our technology has allowed us to see the great magnitudes of size in the universe, I believe it has only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to the incredible smallness of the microscopic universe. We have discovered molecules, atoms and parts of atoms. I believe there are more discoveries in the microscopic to come. We have the added bonus of seeing the microscopic mimicking the giants in their "solar system-like" structure. Just wait until we see the micro version of a black hole. (You read it here first)

When I ponder all of this I realize that man is not only small in size, but man is small in knowledge. Is it an accident that at the time when man achieves the technological advancement to begin to see the secrets of the universe that at the same time he sees how small he and his home earth really is? Is it blind chance that at a time that the collective knowledge of man has grown exponentially in a 100 year sliver of their existence that our realization of what we still have no answers for has grown just as exponentially?

I could launch into a religious direction here, but I will leave those thought to the choice of the reader. I could launch into a diatribe of how little science knows yet boasts enough knowledge to make demands on our lives and economies. Instead, I will simply point out that in the light of such greatness how much of an understatement it is to reflect on how small we really are.

7 Comments:

  • At 9:07 PM, Blogger SkyePuppy said…

    Thanks for the link!

    My readership went way up since you linked to my celestial photos, and I thought, "Wow! Logic Lifeline really has a lot of readers." Then I saw that La Shawn Barber linked to it too, and that explained everything.

    Still, you did it first.

     
  • At 11:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I appreciate your leaving the religious directions to the thoughts of the reader. As for this reader, the Bible says in Psalm 89:11 "The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou has founded them." It is a mystery to me that we could look at these marvelous creations and not know that there is a God who created them.
    Mom

     
  • At 7:55 AM, Blogger All_I_Can_Stands said…

    SkyePuppy,

    First you give me a bubble, then you burst it. :(

    Anyway, that was a fantastic pictorial. I have been thinking about it for days now

     
  • At 8:00 AM, Blogger All_I_Can_Stands said…

    Mom,

    Of course readers are allowed to share point of faith. I felt if I made the point of faith in my post it would get in the way of readers realizing the obvious on their own.

    Thanks for stopping by.

     
  • At 9:53 AM, Blogger Jacob said…

    I think you may have spam, AICS.

     
  • At 9:21 PM, Blogger All_I_Can_Stands said…

    There was a recent spam attack that added a comment to 200 of my posts. I usually clean them up, but this would take too much time.

    I have been urged in the past to add word verification. I am reluctant to the point of stubbornness to add that. If I began getting spam every day, I would be forced to do it, but the sporadic hit is something I can deal with.

     
  • At 11:34 PM, Blogger SkyePuppy said…

    AICS,

    If you just can't stands it to add word verification, you just can't stands it...

     

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