Step Back and Observe The observable universe

THIS IS REALLY GREAT! 1. This is the Earth! This is where you live. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image / Via visibleearth.nasa.gov 2. And this is where you live in your neighborhood, the solar system. Via foxnews.com 3. Here’s the distance, to scale, between the Earth and the moon. Doesn’t look too far, does it? 4. THINK AGAIN. Inside that distance you can fit every planet in our solar system, nice and neatly. PerplexingPotato / Via reddit.com 5. But let’s talk about planets. That little green smudge is North America on Jupiter. NASA / John Brady / Via astronomycentral.co.uk 6. And here’s the size of Earth (well, six Earths) compared with Saturn: NASA / John Brady / Via astronomycentral.co.uk 7. And just for good measure, here’s what Saturn’s rings would look like if they were around Earth: Ron Miller / Via io9.com 8. This right here is a comet. We just landed a probe on one of those bad boys. Here is what one looks like compared with Los Angeles: Matt Wang / Via mentalfloss.com The asteroid or comet hitting the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and wiping out the dinosaurs (except for the direct dinosaur descendants, the birds) some 65 million years ago was of comparable size. 9. But that’s nothing compared to our sun. Just remember: Via Twitter: @maiwandafghani 10. Here’s you from the moon: NASA 11. Here’s you from Mars: NASA 12. Here’s you from just behind Saturn’s rings: NASA 13. And here’s you from just beyond Neptune, 4 billion miles away. NASA To paraphrase Carl Sagan, everyone and everything you have ever known exists on that little speck. 14. Let’s step back a bit. Here’s the size of Earth compared with the size of our sun. Terrifying, right? John Brady / Via astronomycentral.co.uk The sun doesn’t even fit in the image. 15. And here’s that same sun from the surface of Mars: