Put in Our Place
Ever wonder where you fit into the Big Picture? Well, now we have a pretty good idea:
Using a network of radio telescopes spread across the globe, astronomers have determined that the distance from our solar system to the nearest spiral arm of the galaxy (we're in the gap between two arms) is 1.95 plus or minus 0.04 kiloparsecs, or about 36,000,000,000,000,000 miles. That's a pretty long trip, even at "point-five past lightspeed." Just a little something to think about on this chilly Friday morning...
Comments
That's a very cool picture. :)
Posted by: anne | December 9, 2005 3:10 PM
Kind of pretty, huh? It's an artist's rendering, of course, but astronomers have seen other galaxies that look like this, and based on everything we know about our own, well, that's it...
Posted by: jason | December 9, 2005 3:22 PM
kindof looks like we're getting flushed down the toilet. Northern Hemisphere of course :)
Posted by: chenopup | December 9, 2005 8:38 PM