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Scale Of the Universe

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:08 am
by lazyboy
How big are you? Here's an interactive scale of the universe to play with.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html

"The above interactive flash animation, a modern version of the classic video Powers of Ten, is a new window to many of the known scales of our universe. By moving the scroll bar across the bottom, you can explore a diversity of sizes, while clicking on different items will bring up descriptive information."

Enjoy!

Re: Scale Of the Universe

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:21 pm
by Gosso
Neat!

But now imagine that our universe is an atom of another universe, which is an atom of another universe, and so on into infinity.  And that every atom in our universe contains another universe, into infinity.

So we're both bigger and smaller than we think we are.

Re: Scale Of the Universe

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:35 pm
by lazyboy
What you are describing reminds me of Brahma's dream...

Quote below from: http://conscious-universe.blogspot.com/ ... dream.html

If you are a Hindu philosopher, none of the above should surprise you. Hindu philosophy has always accepted the notion of an alternately expanding and contracting universe. In his book Cosmos, Carl Sagan pointed out how, in Hindu cosmology, the universe undergoes an infinite number of deaths and rebirths, and its timescales are in the same ballpark as those of modern cosmology. Here is a quote from Cosmos:

"There is the deep and appealing notion that the universe is but a dream of the god who, after a hundred Brahma years, dissolves himself into a dreamless sleep. The universe dissolves with him - until, after another Brahma century, he stirs, recomposes himself and begins again to dream the cosmic dream.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, there are an infinite number of universes, each with its own god dreaming the cosmic dream. These great ideas are tempered by another, perhaps greater. It is said that men may not be the dreams of gods, but rather that the gods are the dreams of men."

Re: Scale Of the Universe

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 6:03 pm
by lazyboy
Gosso wrote: Neat!

But now imagine that our universe is an atom of another universe, which is an atom of another universe, and so on into infinity.  And that every atom in our universe contains another universe, into infinity.

So we're both bigger and smaller than we think we are.
Gosso, the idea of Brahma's dream, the way I first heard it, is that Brahma dreams the universe and within that dream he dreams of himself dreaming another universe and within that dream he dreams the universe...this dreaming of Brahma within each dream occurs infinitely creating the appearance of infinite universes.

Re: Scale Of the Universe

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:39 pm
by Gosso
lazyboy,

I actually watched that episode of Cosmos the other night, which is why the infinite universes jumped out at me.