Part 5 - Well, That's About the Size of It
March 2019
Whatever you believe about the origins of the universe, you’ve got to admit that it exists so let’s look at some of the size related aspects of it.
To start us off I will begin with The Galaxy Song by Eric Idle of Monty Python fame. Note the figures in the song which are fairly accurate.
It is not just philosophers or astronomers who are obsessed with heavenly bodies.
Now Space, as Douglas Adams once wrote, is big so here are 2 films to show you the relative sizes of it.
Size of universe -1 (lasts 9 mins)
Size of universe -2 (lasts 5 mins)
If you want to sing along to the The Galaxy Song then the lyrics are below.
In Part 6, we will ask Why Are We Here? Why Do Humans Exist?
Galaxy Song
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough,
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour.
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned,
The sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!