Scale of the Universe

A healthy dose of Perspective

Carl Sagan told us that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all of the Earth's beaches. At the same time, there are more H2O molecules in just 10 drops of water than there are stars.

While spinning daily on its own axis, the earth also orbits the sun (again in an anti-clockwise direction) on a path which is slightly elliptical rather than completely circular. It pursues this orbit at truly breakneck speed, travelling as far along it in an hour which is 66,600 miles as the average motorist will drive in six years. To bring the calculations down in scale, this means that we are hurtling through space much faster than any bullet, at the rate of 18.5 miles every second. In the time that it has taken you to read this paragraph, we have voyaged about 550 miles farther along earths path around the sun.