THE UNIVERSE: MIND BOGGLING NUMBERS

Thanks to the amazing James Webb Space Telescope, we continue to learn new and majestic lessons about the Universe. Believe me, it never ends.

My son sent me an online article yesterday about the latest discovery by the James Webb Telescope and the dedicated team of scientists who use it to study the universe. It was an article about one of the earliest galaxies formed after the big bang. That new discovery ignited this article.

When I was ten years old, our 5TH grade teacher, Mrs. Seligson, took us on a trip to the incredible Hayden Planetarium. That school trip changed my life.

I always loved to read and learn, but after that trip, I was almost in a state of shock. At the age of 10, I thought the planet earth and the stars I saw in the sky were it. But thanks to Mrs. Seligson, and the fabulous Hayden Planetarium, for the rest of my life, I would never cease to be amazed by the staggering numbers our brilliant scientists have computed over the years.

On that trip to the Hayden Planetarium, I learned the earth is just a small part of something called the Solar System. We have a star called the Sun, and 9 planets. Then I learned, our solar system is located in a much larger environment called the UNIVERSE.  Wow! What is the Universe?

I’m a long way from being a ten-year-old elementary school student, but I’ll never forget the impact of seeing a model of the solar system and the universe at the Hayden Planetarium. What I’ve learned about the Universe since that elementary school trip has never ceased to amaze me. Thanks to the James Webb Telescope, we’ve learned some incredible lessons, which go way beyond what I learned during that school trip.

We can talk about the size of the Milky Way Galaxy and the Universe, but humans cannot possibly grasp the enormity of the dimensions we now have reference where we live, and how our tiny planet fits into the entire scheme of reality.

The planet Earth, and our solar system, are part of the Milky Way Galaxy. I am going to present a series of numbers that are fascinating. Humans can comprehend the first few sets of numbers, while the big ones, which I’ll present later, are literally impossible to grasp.

• NASA rocket ships travel close to 25,000 mph.
• It takes between 7-8 months, traveling in a rocket ship @ 25,000 mph, to travel from earth to the planet Mars. The time frame depends on where we are in our respective orbits around the sun.
• It took the Voyager II Rocketship about 12 years to arrive at the planet Neptune. That’s right, the solar system is so big, it took a rocket ship, traveling almost 25,000 mph, about 12 years to reach the planet Neptune.

Now we’re going to move onto a series of numbers that are incomprehensible to humans. They continue to amaze and stun me each time I examine them or learn about new ones.

• Just in our Milky Way galaxy alone, it is estimated there are approximately 100 thousand million stars [suns].
• There are between 100 and 200 BILLION PLANETS in the Milky Way. That is billion, not millions. We know for sure, there must be plenty of human life somewhere else in our galaxy.
• How big is the Milky Way? It is approximately 100,000 Light Years across.
• What is a light year? Light travels at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. A light year is the distance light travels in one earth calendar year. Remember, that is 186,000 miles per second, not per hour.
• How long would it take to travel in a rocket ship from one end of the Milky Way to the opposite end? It would take about 1.9 Billion Years.

Hopefully, that will give you some understanding of how incredibly large our Milky Way Galaxy is. With at least some understanding of how gigantic our galaxy is, the following numbers go beyond mind boggling. Human beings cannot possibly put them in any frame of reference, which they can understand.

• As mentioned above several times, the size of the Milky Way galaxy alone, is mind boggling, A big as that number is, we know there are probably between 200 and one trillion other galaxies in the Universe.

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, we now know the Milky Way, despite its enormous size, makes up just tiny portion of the Universe. As I’ve repeatedly stated, there is no way we can comprehend the size of a universe which contains between 200 and One Trillion massive galaxies.