We all learned this stuff way back in elementary school, but sometimes it pays to go back and revisit it just to make sure that we still understand. Have a look at these photos…
More photos after the break.
Antares if the 15th brightest star in the sky and it is more than 1000 light years away (6 quadrillion miles).
This is a Hubble Telescope Ultra Deep Field Infrared View of countless galaxies billions of light years away. It is assumed that each of these galaxies have their own stars and these stars have their own planets. Due the sheer vastness of this, one has to make the general assumption that there is life out there somewhere. I’m not saying that we are getting visited by aliens, but life outside of earth is very likely in my opinion. It may not be intelligent life, but there is life out there…somewhere in the deepest parts of the universe.
Humbling, isn’t it?
6 quadrillion miles? I could drive that…
This is another awesome representation of the scale and distances involved in the universe as we know it:
http://apod.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100120.html