I've been passively into astronomy for at least 40 years and the scales and distances of the universe never cease to amaze me. The human brain is simply not built deal with this stuff. Love it! Great video.
But we should be shooting off probes like Voyager all the time. We could be learning so much more. There should be 1,000 Voyager like probes in every direction from the Earth collecting data. We're like blind people using one finger to read braille when we have ten.
This really is amazing, how far planets and stars are. Makes me think again, where did this whole universe come from ? ... Where did we humans come from? ... the distances are shocking ...
Additonal facts: if the distance between Proxima Centauri and the Sun on on this scale was 202 km, and in reality it's 4,2 ly away, it means that 1ly =42 km on the scale. This means that Andromeda galaxy, which our Milky Way is about to merge with in 5 Billion years forming Milkdromeda, on this scale is 120 Million kilometers from the pea Sun (roughly 80% of the distance to the real Sun). Our galaxy cluster (Local Group) is about the size of a solar system in this scale. And the diamater of the observable universe (92 Billion ly) is 4,5 Trillion kilometers in this scale which is 0,5 ly.
If you want to watch a cool series on how large the universe actually is, there's a man on RU-vid named David Butler with a video series called How Far Away Is It. It is extremely well done. He has a lot of other content too that is definitely worth watching.
This is my favorite thing about space. How it isn't comprehendible how large it is. No mind on this Earth can begin to imagine its vast size. Great video Cody. One of my favorite subjects to be talked about :)
Fermi's paradox resolved. We don't see aliens here because the distances in space are simply mind-bogglingly too great. Some engineering feats just ain't gonna happen. No-how, No way, Never.
I love the determination Cody has. Most other Science channels would say, "So, the nearest star is so far we'd have to leave the state, but that's too far away so here's some numbers: *puts numbers up on screen*" But, no. Cody up and drives outside of the state and puts the tiny peice of paper on the gravel road, like, 125mi away.
The human brain is not able to comprehend 1 millions points and still see scale (just 1mm dots over 1 meter squared, [ seems that our eyes are the limitation] ), we seem to be able to understated with our minds as much as 1m^2 data points, yet this massive scale does only allow us to imagine to the nearest star. We are are so far away from being able to imagine our galaxy that it is as in-obtainable to our conscious minds as the technology required to make cell phones are to primates... Scale is everything
It's all unprovable nonsense. Research flat earth and the Firmament. All those lights in the sky are CLOSE and TINY, not "light years" away. Look into the Inverse Square Law of Light to understand that the term "light years" is a physical IMPOSSIBILITY.
Great video. I’m 76 but it was just a few years ago that I realized how incredibly alone we are. I’m sure there is intelligent life out there but we are never going to contact it. Let’s all try to not screw up this human life thing.
I'm 76 also and pretty much a Recluse/Hermit. (which I wouldn't change for anything!) I learned decades ago to be my own Best Friend and I am never lonely at all.... Plus, Christ is my other Best Friend... so what more could I ask for !
We don't know if there is life elsewhere. Chances are not. The media and egotistical cosmologist claim it's a given, yet without the knowledge of how common abiogenesis is, it's a black box.
Really good video. Puts the scale into understandable perspective. Honestly, seeing our sun is a pea and Betelgeuse is a car is an insane representation.
What really puts it to scale is that car Betegeuse is way over on the East coast, BUT the distance is measured going WEST out across the pacific, across asia/europe then landing on the East Coast from over the Atlantic.
Until he said “that’s the furthest any human has ever been”, it never struck me...I literally never thought about it that way. We have explored approximately none of our universe.
Relative to the center of the Milky Way the earth is hurtling through the galaxy at 500,000 mph. Voyager spacecraft is only traveling at 50,000 mph relative to earth. "We are exploring the Cosmos at breakneck speeds!"
@@doiron12 Except everything is moving along with us so we're not really exploring anything. At least Voyager is actually moving away from Earth and closer to other stuff, but then again it has been doing so for decades and only has a few years of battery left, even with most of its sensors shut off. Its considered to be in interstellar space now, but it's so much closer to the Sun than any other star.
Nice job. Wow. I knew it was a large distance, but this really puts it in perspective. We are definitely on our own. Hopefully we can keep the earth running for a while longer.
I love a good "scale of the universe" video and this is among the best! It's hard to grasp how far away objects in the universe really are, but most of us know what a long drive in a car feels like. Speaking of which, it would be worth noting how the speed of light scales to this model. I think it would be about the speed of a banana slug if it wasn't in a particular hurry!
"So, at this scale, to place the nearest star we are going to have to leave town...did I say town....I meant state!" :) awesome demonstration of the amazing distances in space.
Ronald Eddy Jr I walked into the ‘puter room during the video trip to Alpha Centauri. Recognized 80 into SlC, then north on 15 to Downey cutoff and on up to Downey. Thought my kid shot a dash vid coming in from Tooele! Instead, a vid made by a scientific Utahn with only a hint of accent! 'Morble' gives it away. Very cool vid on our need to create warp space without scrunching everything between points A and B.
@@eugenef0zzy yes that is true, go watch a time lapse video of the stars at night. They all move around the north star, in perfect circles but after a long period of time goes by you'll see that the stars all move the exact same distance relative to there appeared 2D distance away from the north star. How is it possible, from our perspective, that this occurs, if all stars are at different distances from earth (some thousands of time farther away from each other) and yet they all appear to move from our perspective at the exact same speed, all in THE EXACT SAME DIRECTION?? Stars should be moving all over the place from our perspective, not all in perfect circles.
Truly amazing demonstration, gives us a glimpse of how grand the universe is. I thought for a moment Proxima centauri would be at the edge of the field, didn't know it would be 125 miles away even on such a small scale..
He probably needed to meet his grandmother or something who lives outside of the town lol. So he was like why not just shoot a video while on the way there.
If we put a star at a distance of a single human Step and star twalking, we would have to cross Uranus orbit to get outta Milky Way. Tough shit when you look at how far the next Star is. It will take our current fastest Jet Plane that flies at 1220 km/hr around 2.2 millions years to reach the Next Human Step, Proxima Century. There are 25000 million such stars in our galaxy only. And there are trillions and trillions such galaxies in observable universe alone which itself is estimated as only 0.2% of the total universe lmao.
@@boonslang6689 Nice analogy, but some of these numbers are a little off. The Columbia reached 28000 km/h in 1981. As far as spacecraft, Voyager 1 reached 60 000 km/h. With current existing technology, a manned flight could be made in roughly 13000 years. A nuclear drive could do it in a single millennia. When you start considering that in just 117 years, we've gone from a wooden & canvas plane that flew at 56 km/h, to space probes reaching speeds of hundreds of thousands of km/h with the aid of gravity, we're a whole lot closer to interstellar travel than people think. Many of us today will be alive to see telemetry from the first probe to reach another star system. With the pace of current technological development, it is not inconceivable that we may even live to see the first humans reach another star system.
hellelujahh That's true people haven't evolved to process such huge numbers and distances. Good though because it's fun being spun out by things like this.
So cody i quess u believe in the iss, please explain the speeds of the ball in comparison to the iss is out there to say the least, how can the earth be spinning at 1025 mph and the iss supposed orbit of 17,500mph, let alone the earth hurtling around the sun at 66,000mph and traveling thru the galaxy at 500,000mph and the can take steady videos and clear pics and vids how is this even possiball, it would look like the fastest long exposure ever being as blurry as can be, but yet we see sometimes on iss it spins and moves oh so slowly or is that because im a stupid flat earther some might say, let alone see no satilites ever not in one vid or pic provided from the iss, so explain the crazy fuckin theory boys n girls, correct me if im wrong, and u think we came from monkeys come give everyone a break, with ur scientism bs.
Two analogies that might be easier to visualize: -at the scale where Neptune’s orbit is 1 millimetre in diameter, Proxima is about 4.5 metres away -at the scale where the distance from the Earth to the Sun is 1 mm, the distance to Proxima is about 270 m (roughly the length of a suburban residential street)
justin brah, We don’t. The Oort Cloud has never been observed. Therefore, we don’t know if it exists at all. There was a guy, named oort, who made it up in hopes that it would explain comets. But new observations show that comets look a lot like asteroids.
It's really amazing that stars have the gravity power they have on planets and other stars when you see their size compared to distance from each other.
It's all bullshit, there is nu endless vacuum. The stars you see in the night sky are attached to the firmament, and are no more than frequencies of light. The other stars of the "solar system" are only wandering stars on the firmament. That has been known for thousands of years until the heliocentric bullshit unrealistic model took over.
Stars have to be that far away from each other, if they get too close bad things happen. Scales in space are on another level from what you are use to here on Earth. Cody is only talking about the nearest star, which is 4.3 LY from Earth, our nearest galaxy, Andromeda, is 2 million LY away from the Milky Way. There are billions and billions of galaxies spread across a universe on a scale that we can't really grasp the size of.
I'm none of the above, although in your little mind you would wish I was just trolling take a month to watch the stars every night and I dont mean in a smartphone app they haven't changed in thousands of years how is it possible if we're tossing through space with the solar system and the galaxy? these are some serious questions about the heliocentric model people are starting to ask
This is a profoundly educational video, you have expanded so many people's imaginable reference of distance. You did so, very simply and effectively as well. Today I comprehend why you have amassed such a following considering what a superficial glance doesn't demonstrate about your depth. Well done, you have exceptional humility too. Great content Cody, keep up the good work. People like you bring so much and so many people the scientific community, which serves mankind indefinitely.
Fantastic video. Just discovered your channel and subbed. The scale of it all is so hard to comprehend but your video really helps the human mind grasp it better! Well done. 🙂
Hey Cody. I've got a challenge for you. Try to figure out the COLDEST temperature of a flame. Maybe try different fuels or different environments. Would be a great learning experience for a lot of viewers and myself. Hope to see if this gets accepted.
Yep. I know there are different ignition points for fuels but don't know which are "Colder" than others. Like I said, would be could if he could distinguish which are "colder" and "hotter".
+Cody'sLab please Cody! This would be fascinating. (Ignore my profile picture's hand gesture. I'm huge fan of science and you. This is not sarcasm. [Shit, I'm losing my credibility fast. Better stop here.])
The Chemistry Nerd the other night I drove from 30 miles north of Milwaukee to Chicago just to listen to the song lake shore drive while driving down lake shore drive
+ The Chemistry Nerd Yeah, he shoulda gone for a scale of a nice, even, one-to-a-trillion. Then he'd only have had to drive a mere 25 miles. Of course, he'd also have to use that magnifier a lot more to show us the scaled-down stars and planets.
Cody: "I'm sorry, Officer Einstein; I didn't know how fast I was going." Einstein: "Shameful. I'll write you a warning this time, but the next time you might not be so lucky. A hyperlight speed collision is hazardous to your health. Don't do it again."
There's only one more thing to emphasize: gravity is FAR the weakest of the basic forces of nature. Yet that is what binds together that little material compared to that huge distance that can be passed by at a very-very-very limited speed by that force.
Space Engine gets the sheer distance across the best. 4LY is a long way bro. First time I played, I located Proxima Centauri and went towards it. After about a minute of going about 12c I was thinking "damn how far is this thing?" I cranked up to 1LY/s and I shot past it lmao
Great video! For whatever reason, the image at 10:06 really struck me as significant. To think about the tremendous number of stars we can see all being in such a minuscule part of the galaxy is mind-boggling. Thanks for this content. I quite enjoyed this.
Not only what daemonhat said but electrons aren't actual objects, but electromagnetic waves with a probability of being close to the proton (but they could be anywhere really). I mad this gfycat.com/HorribleAllGermanshepherd little anymation recently were I pretended that electrons are spheres (which they aren't) to compare its weight to that of a proton and I also made this imgur.com/a/0TFn0 periodic table, where each element sticks out proportionally to its calculated radius. It might give you at least some idea.
Toemelii electrons are particles, and like any other particles they have wave properties... Also don't know why you said electromagnetic waves that's completely different thing.
Gareth Dean The trouble is at school you learn the solar system type model of atoms which is easy to visualise but wrong. Once you get into quantum physics the picture becomes a lot more complex with the particles behaving like waves and visualising it gets harder. Then you go even deeper and realise protons and neutrons behave the same but are made up of quarks and the picture gets harder and harder to imagine!
Moonrazor King A stupid comment . The flat earthers find it hard to believe that the Earth is a sphere but they’re wrong. Galileo fought against the “hard to believe” theory that the Earth is the centre of the universe let alone the solar system and he was found to be right. Evolution as a theory was hard to believe but rigorous scientific method proved it right... Gravity is a theory, lets see you jump out of an aeroplane and prove gravity wrong.
This really helps putting it into perspective and these are just our nearest stars. It's mind warping to even think about it. It's also sad because even though there is likely life out there in the galaxy and the universe we're never going to see it. Not unless we can find some wormhole way of travel to any point at an instant.
@@yungpo9853 We're the apex predator, can traverse the entire planet, can heal ourselves remarkably...we are absolutely a successful species what we want now is to expand beyond that success. However, taking in mind that rat race with ourselves never ends. :)
@@spiritualopportunism4585 Didn't say we were a failure currently. But if by 8019 we haven't traveled the stars we've failed. Our spieces will have to travel to different places in the universe to ensure our survival.
try this on for size. to count to 1,000,000 it would take about 11 and a half days BUT to count to 1,000,000,000 would take about 31 and a half YEARS!!!
Aside from illustrating the distance to that star, which is also cool, this illustrates how cool an accomplishment the voyager probe is. Science for the win.
Paranormal Encyclopedia: The most amazing thing about voyager is the fact that we can still (a bit) communicate with it and all the information it has passed to us on its voyage. The fact that it will be the first human made object to reach interstellar space is no more of a nice curiosity. I'm sure we will create probes that will overtake it, in dreams perhaps even manned missions. But yes, it is cool, and I'm sure will always be remembered.
I nearly unconciously cried when he was travelling to place the star. I was like ENOUGH, YOU'VE TRAVELED ENOUGH, STOP IT, I DON'T WANT TO KNOW. HOW F@#&-*G FAR IS IT??!! HOW SMALL WE ARE?????!!!!!!
The volume of the observable universe is ~3.6x10^80 Cubic Meters. A human takes up ~0.1 m^3. Or rather, you take up 1/3600000000000000307409205720723958754374371817423089397567280740026905028139679744th, or 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000028% of the universe, at least for the moment. The volume of the observable universe is expanding at the speed of light, so that number is shrinking at a cubic rate.
Frank22 Frank22 Frank22 Well, in order to give you a better feel: In my opinion the dream of being part of a race that could have the capability to handle such a huge task is overwighting the fact that we are so "small ".
I think markog1999 meant that Cody should travel further on to show how far, in scale, Proxima B would end up being. My guess is northern Montana or southern Canada.
I see your content mentioned so much on other platforms and I find it so entertaining every time! Even like today I am seeing your video mentioned in the comments on reddit 6 years later!
This is by far the greatest video to show the scale of space. The thought of radish seeds and peas 125 miles from each other and all that nothing when blown up to scale is kind of frightening, really. I'm a little late saying it, but thanks, Cody.
@@skeeter197140 why is CGI not real? Ok, I'll bite, what was I going to say? But I'm thinking I'd say space travel by T-NASA is by the same people who produce SATAN Claus, just with a bigger budget.
@@JesusIsaFlatEarther I just don't see what CGI has to do with Cody's video, or my comment. But you seem slightly unhinged, and it's making me a tad uncomfortable, so I'm going to just politely excuse myself.
@@skeeter197140 They use CGI because the vacuum of space is scientifically impossible. So everything they show about space is either CGI or from low Earth orbit.
One of the unforgettable moments that lead to me getting a physics degree was when an older boy ( I was around 7, he around 15), while walking me home at night, asked me if I knew how far were the stars? This was the 50s and so space travel had hardly begun, let alone general awareness of matters astronomical. I told him I did not know, and, although I forget his exact words, he was able to convey to me the staggering truth of it all. We walked the rest of the way home in silence because I was literally shocked and lost for words.
Indeed. And we have avoided this fact (ridiculously insurmountable distances) ever since. Pretending just a little more, each decade, that we're right on the cusp of actually travelling anywhere in space, other than maybe the moon once again if we're lucky. We've convinced ourselves our reach as a human race goes beyond the paper - thin wrap around our own planet. 😉
Nothing is more fascinating nor mind blowing as space facts...kind of sobering though...we live in an ocean of exotic planets that we can never know ..they exist just like our earth..
I love simple but mind blowing stuff like this. I already knew it, but every time I see someone try to explain the vastness of the universe I always am awed by the immensity.
When put to that scale, yeah. Certainly makes you feel small. And thats just the nearest star. Imagine the scales for galaxy, and the galaxys' beyond. Wish I was born 200 years from now :/
@@danthemansmail Knowing mankind, you may be right. I like to think we will have put aside our differences by then. reached a balance with the planet in terms of resources. I suppose it's the rules of progression that excite me the most . 500 years ago, we were crossing the Atlantic in 2 months. 100 years ago, it was a week. 20 years ago, you could in 2 hours (via the Concorde) . Now there's someone in the International Space Station whipping around the planet every hour. While I'm certain we won't be reaching another star system, but travelling to Mars and back in a few days seems plausible.
the speed of light is just insignificant compared to this big and expanding universe, so insignificant that in some point in the future It will not be enough fast to reach us because the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light basically, there are faster galaxies than the speed of light
The thing that has long amazed me about the size scale of the universe is just how astoundingly slow the speed of light is compared to the size scale of the universe. We tend to think of the speed of light as fast. That’s only by human standards. On the scale of the universe it’s insanely slow imho.
It feels insanely slow to you because we have an peculiar relationship with time. For us, 100 years is enormous, it is our entire existence. But really 100 years is nothing for the universe. It wouldn't matter much if the speed of light would be a billion times faster or slower, sure it would take a billions times more or less time for light to travel distances, but in the end it would still be nothing compared to infinity.
That is a good point you make Flyfeuhhh. Velocity after all is simply defined as change in distance / change in time. So two way to express what I said above about how slow the speed of light is, is to simply recast that as the speed of light is fast but the universe is so INSANELY large (obviously). Or it's only slow for beings like us that have such insanely short life spans.
I mean, with the sheer number of stars in both galaxies A FEW are bound to collide just because of the immense numbers involved (we're talking a handful out of a billion here), not counting the cores or very-near-cores of both galaxies because there will be some terrifying cataclysmic clusterfuck there and anything could happen in that area afaik.
In average there is only few atoms worth of matter in cubic meter of space. We can't make that good vacuum. And all the time everything gets further away from each other, density gets smaller
@@SteveMHNgalaxies spheres of influence may collide with each other but the stars & planets within them are so tiny astronomically speaking that the chance of 2 stars colliding is said to be 1 in a trillion.
Thank you Cody. yes Martin I agree . Just a thought? stand at Alpha Centuri 210.93 Km away from earth with 1, 10, 100 arc welders all striking arcs. Light a 50m roll of magnesium to boot. Go stand at the earth dot. Shrink yourself to be able the stand on the dot[ earth] we'd be pretty small silly fuckers. Presuming you have a line of sight. Could you honestly see the light? This guy unwittingly, has just proved the FIRMAMENT and ignoring the big thing perspective. By the way 100 arc welders and the man ribbon would be like a very lengthy supernova [ School Maths lesson could scale how long in earth time it would last ] Cody would need Hubble eye sight too see a PEA 20 meters away let alone 1 light year away . The expression on death 'go to the light' really, they're saying. ' What silly fuckers the sheeple are. No one can see that far. We're being f#$*ed with in Astronomy Class . Thanks Cody I see you from 1000 light years away
It blows my mind that even on this miniature scale, it still takes hours to drive to the nearest star. And that the gravitational influences for such seemingly small objects can reach so far and be noticeable
@@ridethroughlifertl Some basic napkin math that was only trying to be in the ballpark (not going for super accuracy), I'm getting about 12,500x the speed of light. He took a trip that would take a little over 4.3 years at the speed of light, in 3 hours.
@@StormsparkPegasus Very cool. That's the kind of thing I was interested in. Thanks for doing that. I figured because a 3-hour drive can seem to take forever, it's nothing compared to the many multiple generations it would take to get anywhere cosmically, even at lightspeed.
@@ridethroughlifertl Just keep in mind when I said basic napkin math, it was VERY basic napkin math. No relativity, length contraction, time dilation, or anything like that. Of course, in reality, if you head off to Alpha Centauri at 99.9999% (ish, not exact) the speed of light, to you it would only seem like a few hours, but the rest of the universe would see you taking the trip in ~4.3 years.
“Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s peanuts to space.” Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
+ Bob Smith. Kinda silly bunch, us humans. We measure something like interstella distances, make a scale model, then feel satisfied that we actually have the concept licked... ...but it gets worse... ...we realise maths/numbers cannot ever come to an end, invent a mere name like "infinity" and imagine that we actually understand THAT???? WTF??! Finally, via said maths, we discover things like "Infinitly dense black holes", feel comfortable that none of that stuff really matters, and carry on killing each other over oil, money, power and other real important stuff. At least quantum mechanics has the decency to be utterly baffeling...
That's because he drove into space with his trusty tape measure and measured the distance from our sun to the next solar system. Too bad he didn't fly American Airlines, he could've racked up some serious air, er...SPACE miles on his VISA card? 😕
@spikedpsycho: Not for God though. He Can do anything and be everywhere at the same time. 😁 "one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:6) 😁
No doubt my friend. Life begets life. We are made from the atoms in our universe, the chemical changes those atoms go through and the biological reactions that make up life. If Earth can do it...
Well, just think about this, if the universe is infinite the possibilities are endless so, there might be millions of guys like him trying to show people like us how fucking big the universe is.
Thanks for the effort, thanks for driving the 2 times 200+ km, Cody. Great visualiation. Even 200 km are not so easy to visualize, let alone astronomical distances... Living in a huge space on a tiny spec, aren't we crazy to fight each other...? Love'n'peace to all.
