If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel

Here's a cool scale representation of the solar system that I have not seen before on here. It uses the moon's diameter as a base unit and set it to one pixel. You just hit the right arrow key to scroll through it. It will take a Very long time to get to the end. I held the button down for about 15 minutes and only got to Jupiter. There are some informational and comical text in-between planets. There is a lot of space out there. If any one takes the time to scroll all the way to the end with out cheating let me know how long it took. To me it seemed to move at about 1,000,000 km per sec. I'm not sure if its different for each computer. Also I did a search and I scrolled through the recently posted topics in the S&E forums and didn't see it. Have Fun.

joshworth.com...

Here's a quicker way to see the scale of things

reply to post by BGTM90


Great link, thanks!

reply to post by VoidHawk


The awesome thing about this and what I think its really geared towards is showing the vast distances and empty space between planets that the human mind has a hard time conceptualizing. Like when when I say something is 30,000,000 km away people with out reference have no way of imagining how far that actually is. They might think oh thats really far but with out help its almost impossible to get a sense of how far it actually is. Nice Pics. though!

Absolutely mindblowing... the highlight of my day. Does it really matter if I do anything?

Space, even inside the Solar System, is very big and very empty. These kind of videos or interactive simulations always blow my mind. It's a bit of a let-down when I think of space exploration. It takes decades to reach the outer Solar System, and would take thousands of years to get anywhere beyond it.

reply to post by BGTM90


Nice.

I got to...

Might as well stop now. We'll need to scroll through 6,771 more maps like this before we see anything else

Lol

reply to post by BGTM90


Lol! When you get to the end it says...... follow me on Twitter.

It also says you would have to scroll through 6,771 more maps like that one before you saw anything that is beyond Pluto.

I'm going to have to show that to my son. I've never thought of the moon as so tiny (New York to Vegas = diameter). I guess I haven't thought about it enough to compare - learn something new everyday.

Its hard to imagine spooky action, wormholes, or any of physicists' conceptualization of space when perceiving that empty space as a vacuum of dark nothingness. The empty space is really not empty but dark energy - with many unknowns. If traveling through that for a few years I imagine a person could enter time rips, black holes, and things we cannot yet imagine. I'm not sure why one of our space vehicles hasn't found anything yet but hopefully one day - will be sending back pictures of something we can really talk about.

wildespace
Space, even inside the Solar System, is very big and very empty. These kind of videos or interactive simulations always blow my mind. It's a bit of a let-down when I think of space exploration. It takes decades to reach the outer Solar System, and would take thousands of years to get anywhere beyond it.

You have to admit that we don't know what we don't know yet. What I mean is that we cannot discount star travel, because of these vast distances.

In 1814, 200 years ago, the Pacific Ocean was an impossible distance to travel from Asia to North America. It took weeks. Now, via a jet, we can cross that distance in hours. A few minutes by rocket.

The point is that technology is quickly evolving. I do not discount the possibility of faster than light travel, as we unravel the mystery of quantum physics.

We are not going to explore outer space in a Saturn 5 rocket, any more than we explored the Pacific in a canoe 200 years ago. But, I believe technology will eventually tell us there. It might be 1,000 years. But we will get there.

So has any one taken the time to scroll all the way through it? How long did it take? Was it moving at about 1,000,000 km/s for every one els? Also Yes, I guess I should have said that it is mostly empty space besides particles and quantum phenomena, but if you went down to that scale and had a similar map Im sure that the distances between particles would be just as vast if not larger. At an average of about 5 particles per square centimeter in interplanetary space, lets say the average distance between them is about 3 millimeters. Now if we use a proton as a base unit at ~ .9 fm and round it up to 1 fm per pixel the average distance between particles would be 3000000000000 (3x10^12) pixels. Now say your monitor works at 72 DPI (dots per inch) meaning there are 72 pixels per inch which converts to 72 pixels/25.4 mm. 72/25.4= ~2.8 than you can round up and you get 3 pixels per mm. 3000000000000/3= 1000000000000 mm than convert that to meters and the space between particles would be ~100,000,000m or about 621,371 miles between particles!!!!. Of course this is all averages and estimations but it still gives you an idea of the vast distances on that scale. In the real world its a lot more complicated Hope I did the math wright, there were a lot of decimals and conversions if any one notices any mistakes let me know.

Here is a large model of the Solar system.
Sweden Solar System

Dianec
The empty space is really not empty but dark energy - with many unknowns. If traveling through that for a few years I imagine a person could enter time rips, black holes, and things we cannot yet imagine. I'm not sure why one of our space vehicles hasn't found anything yet

Not sure dark energy or dark matter or those ambiguous terms are even real as such .. i think its just a a concept .. a term to describe an unknown, to make the equations work .. i think ...that said... you are right that every square inch space is apparently packed with energy ...

But, with regards to the type of anomaly you mention ... a little satellite travelling for a few years and coming across anomalies .. its kinda all relative ... if you consider the earth itself is a huge space ship .. a huge biological self containing space ship of sorts .. its travelling through space, along with the solar system at a phenomenal speed that makes the man made craft look like a speck of dust floating along side us ... i suspect if a wee piddly tiny man made sluggish craft could find something in a few years of travelling (barely able to reach the outer solar system in 30 years ?).. earth would have come across these science fiction anomalies many times over in those few years, and these things would all be known of already ...

not bursting your bubble ... theres clearly many more stuff to be learned that completely defies or understanding ... stuff we arent even aware of yet .. but one of our wee satellites floating like a wee miniscule dot in unimaginable vastness, and barely floating away from earth ... in contrast, the earth is far huger, and really travelling .. the spacecraft are travelling through space, caught within the pull of our solar system, and is being dragged through the galaxy on a similar trajectory as earth, only far smaller ... as its barely travelling away from the earth, and suns pull ... its being dragged along through the galaxy at a tremendous speed .. but in relative terms .. very slowly from our perspective ...

and of course galaxies themselves, travel at phenomenal speeds again, through space, dragging all the solar systems that they are made of ... this adds a further dimension of travel ... so .. we cover an awful lot more space, than just a wee craft, or the earth orbitting the sun .. or the solar system revolving around the galaxy on top of that ...

reply to post by Segenam


The helical model of the solar system is wrong. It presumes that the angle of the elliptical of our solar system is at 90' to the galactic plane. It's not I believe it's about 65'. Also it doesn't take into account the movement of the galaxy through space whih is in an entirely different direction. It looks cool but it's not right.

reply to post by BGTM90


im not sure its supposed to be a specifically accurate visual representation ... it doesn't claim to be ... its just an animation that was created to get a concept of the helical model across, which i think it does very well ... i dont think it claims to be visually precise and accurate ...

Also .. the animation does not touch on the movement of the galaxy ... that does not make the animation wrong .. it wasnt supposed to ... it just means they did not cover it in that animation .. it wasnt required , in order to convey the concept of how the solar system moves 'within' the galaxy ..
saying that makes it 'wrong', is like saying you are wrong when describing how you journeyed from home to work .. cos you forgot to take into account and mention the movement of the earth too .. which makes zero difference in relation to the detail of how you journeyed to work ... the movement of the galaxy was not required to convey the point of the video, and would only serve to confuse the viewer with additional unrelated info ..

reply to post by Segenam


Ok if you wan't to excluded the movement of the galaxy than yes the planets do make a helical motion through the galaxy but if you want describe how the planets move though space its not correct. But either way that video does not show an accurate visual representation of either situation, and why make a video thats not an accurate visual representation of a theory when it is supposed to be a visual representation of a theory? Thats like me making a bar graph and than saying its not an accurate representation of my data?
That model assumes that there is a constant distance between the arc and the axis of travel. Now sense the planets are tilted 65' from the axis and not 90' this is not accurate. Also it assumes the pants move on a perfect arc, this is also not true sense the planets orbits are elliptical and get closer and further away from the sun.

reply to post by BGTM90


my goodness mate .. wow ... lol .... batter in man

wildespace
Space, even inside the Solar System, is very big and very empty. These kind of videos or interactive simulations always blow my mind. It's a bit of a let-down when I think of space exploration. It takes decades to reach the outer Solar System, and would take thousands of years to get anywhere beyond it.

You forgot to add, "with slow chemical rockets."

Jchristopher5

wildespace
Space, even inside the Solar System, is very big and very empty. These kind of videos or interactive simulations always blow my mind. It's a bit of a let-down when I think of space exploration. It takes decades to reach the outer Solar System, and would take thousands of years to get anywhere beyond it.

You have to admit that we don't know what we don't know yet. What I mean is that we cannot discount star travel, because of these vast distances.

In 1814, 200 years ago, the Pacific Ocean was an impossible distance to travel from Asia to North America. It took weeks. Now, via a jet, we can cross that distance in hours. A few minutes by rocket.

The point is that technology is quickly evolving. I do not discount the possibility of faster than light travel, as we unravel the mystery of quantum physics.

We are not going to explore outer space in a Saturn 5 rocket, any more than we explored the Pacific in a canoe 200 years ago. But, I believe technology will eventually tell us there. It might be 1,000 years. But we will get there.

edit on 7-3-2014 by Jchristopher5 because: (no reason given)

edit on 7-3-2014 by Jchristopher5 because: (no reason given)

If we upload our consciousness into some sort of super advanced computer and effectively become immortal, 1,000 years will take on a different meaning entirely.

People tend to forget about the singularity when talking about the future of space exploration. It won't take 1,000 years for the singularity to happen. It might be as close as 10 years and no further than 40 years away by most estimates.

Excellent link!! I just don't have the patience to scroll down for so long! lol

Looking at those pics posted above, it's so clear we are just a speck of dust......maybe we are the Whos!!