My other avid interest is working and living in space, I've had this
interest ever since I can remember (5 or 6 years old, I think)
The Vastness of Space
One way to help visualize the relative sizes in the solar system is to
imagine a model in which it is reduced in size by a factor of a billion (1e9).
Then the Earth is about 1.3 cm in diameter (the size of a
grape). The Moon orbits about a foot away. The Sun is 1.5 meters in diameter
(about the height of a man) and 150 meters (about a city block) from the
Earth. Jupiter is 15 cm in diameter (the size of a large grapefruit) and 5
blocks away from the Sun. Saturn (the size of an orange) is 10 blocks away;
Uranus and Neptune (lemons) are 20 and 30 blocks away. A human on this scale
is the size of an atom; the nearest star would be over 40000 km away.
Quantum Physics is an area that is sure to expand our understanding
of the cosmos. It may well explain a great many things.
Images
This Picture is Absolutely Cosmic!
If you've ever wondered about the oneness of the Universe, have a
look at this computer generated representation of the known visible
universe plotted in 3D
A Shuttle Launch during the early
morning hours. This picture was taken in Orlando
at about 5:40am. the contrails were so bright, that they turned
off all the lights in the parking lot of the local Publix.
You can see the shuttle itself as the brighter point of light slightly
to the right of the top of the white contrail near the top.
