Monday, April 13, 2009

April 14, 2009 - Wrap your brain around this



This is a huge ball of stars that existed before humankind, before dinosaurs, before Earth, even before our Sun. Omega Centauri is the largest globular cluster scientists have yet discovered. It contains over 10 million stars. It is so bright southern observers can see it with the naked eye. It is 18,000 light-years away and 150 light-years in diameter. At our current ability for space travel it would take 54,000 years to get there, give or take, and another 450 years to get to the other side. And it's estimated to be 12 billion years old. Let that sink in. Can one even comprehend? We're truly just a grain of sand on an infinite beach.

This is from a site called Astronomy Picture of the Day. The images are truly spectacular and mind boggling. And they're nice big images that you can truly get lost in. So when you have a moment just sit and meditate on one of these images. Maybe it'll stretch your brain a little. And that's gotta be a good thing. m




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