If the Moon were one pixel...
 

You would need 913 of these screens lined up side-by-side to show this whole map at once.

It was pretty interesting to see the scale of Jupiter in relation to it's moons.

Thank you professor :doh:

Kinda makes you feel really small...

To go to Alpha Centurai, then next nearest star, you would have to take the whole Sun to Pluto map and multiply that by 6,860!

Mars is the farthest we can travel to with the current technology. Farther out (or in) will require Star Trek like tech: warp drive, shields, holodecks, even cryo tubes.
And of course, computers to play video games.
In order to take your mind away from the fact that you are traversing a mind boggling vast emptiness inside a metallic vessel you cannot exit, while time seems to have stopped, you can escape into playing, say, Silent Hunter, uninterrupted.

Interestingly, I got a different screen count of how many side by side screens the map would take up. It seems the map can detect your screen size/resolution.

I got all the way out to Pluto and my PC crashed.:timeout: Now I'm marooned on Pluto. Thanks Fr8monkey.:stare:

Turn off CSS and you can scroll down.

That can't be all that bad, at least you got past Uranus :)

Realising that essentially all that is - is nothingness, sometimes has a cathartic effect on me.

On other days, staring into this abyss - is pure horror.

All this many sights and places existing on worlds and moons, so monumental, so beautiful or awful - all of it so unmoved by our presence, so dead. What question we ever direct at the universe, what methods we try to approach it or try to attach any - our - meaning to it - the cosmos always remains silent.

We never get any answer. Sometimes we are so desperate that we flee into our fantasy, only to imagine an answer. Because otherwise we could not bear to live.

In a way, life and the fact that we exist and witness what we believe our senses are telling us, is a miracle. But one could as well say that at the same time it is a nightmare.

That was very existential, Skybird.:up: It reminded me of those warm summer nights on my grandfather's farm. Being out in the boonies where you could actually see most of the stars in the Milky Way and realizing just how small we are in this grand cosmos.:huh: We are like a grain of sand in the Sahara desert.:sunny:
Once you realize and accept that the universe is nothing expanding into something, then you can wear stripes with plaid without fear of repercussions.:yep:
Still, it seems like an awful waste of space.

Thanks for that up-beat assessment, I'm off to eat an antidepressant sandwich now.

It's sometimes easy to look at the vastness of the Universe and see it as wasted space or unseen beauty. Of course this is a very human viewpoint and probably a faulty one. Who says it isn't being used or seen by someone else? I think we here on earth are fortunate just to be aware of our Universe and its beauty and complexity. The shear size is difficult to grasp but equally so is the fact that Human existence is a quick blink of an eye in its time frame.

I think it's a nice Universe. :D

:har:

It probably needs a Monthy Python state of mind to settle one's own peace deal with an uncaring universe. :-?

Squeeze a layer of honey and rum between both halfs. ;)

Or just don't think about it.

All the people I know, all the hobbies I have, all the boats I built, potholes hit, gasoline bought, lasagnas eaten, dodgeballs avoided, traffic sings stolen and peppers raised, my current dog, my late dog, my both living grandmothers and dead grandfathers, every Z, P, J and A's of my life are on this small abused blue marble.
Up there there's nothing I had or will have. No interest to ponder or settle ones own peace deal with an uncaring universe. I have a small caring universe on those 5 green pixels at 149793877 km. Anything else is a waste of neruotransmitters.


Don't get me wrong, I'm interested in astronomy, space travel and anything that will bring us to the stars. It's the phylosophical side of the vast emptynes of space I find unnecessary.

And my mind is always running on Monthy Python mode :O: