Sunday, March 18, 2012

From Planck Length to the Universe

I think we take for granted, as physicists, the vastness of the field we are in.  Physicists study the the smallest things conceivable to the seemingly infinite reaches of the universe and everything in between. Here is a very cool thing I've discovered on Astronomy Picture of the Day that shows the scale of the stuff that makes up the universe (please go to the link!). From the plank length to the universe and many examples in between, it is awe inspiring to know how both small were are in terms of the universe and how huge we are in terms of the tiny bits of stuff of which we are made.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html

Here are some things which surprised me:


-The largest known star, Canis Majoris, has a diameter roughly that of the distance between the Sun and Jupiter!


-In the lifetime of the Earth, it has traveled (relative to the Sun) a distance about equal to the diameter of 5 Milky Way Galaxies!


-We can only observe an extremely small portion of the actual Universe


-You could place several neutron stars within the borders of Rhode Island


-A neutron star is not much larger than Mount Everest, but the highest mountain of a neutron star is about 10 cm!


-A transistor gate is too small to be seen, even with an optical microscope!


-The top quark is the smallest quark... by a lot!


-A high energy neutrino is largest than a regular neutrino


-There's something out in the Universe called Gomez's Hamburger :)

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