1. Amazing Facts About Our Universe
Ms. Wasson

2. Our Universe
For the next few minutes let’s try to understand just how large the universe really is…

3. Before We Begin… We need to understand the speed of light
The speed of light is commonly used to measure large distances because light travels so fast.

4. Before We Begin… The speed at which light travels is:
186,000miles PER SECOND
186,000miles/second is a little hard to understand, so let’s use an illustration.

5. Let’s Pretend…
Let’s pretend that a bullet, shot from a gun you are holding, can travel at the speed of light

6. Still Pretending…
And let’s pretend that this bullet traveled around the Earth like this:

8. That bullet would go through you 7 times before you could fall out of the way!!!

9. That Same “Special” Bullet:
That same “special” bullet would travel to the moon in just 1.3 seconds.
That same “special” bullet would take 500 seconds (just over 8 minutes) to reach the sun.
Our sun is way out there!!

10. Our Universe This is Whirlpool Galaxy
Located 31 million light years away from our galaxy.
To get there, you would have to multiply 31 million by 5.88 trillion miles (equal to 1 light year) to determine the distance you have to cover in order to reach this galaxy from the Milky Way.

11. Galaxies
Whirlpool Galaxy…the Milky Way Galaxy…are only 2 of 100’s of billions of known galaxies in the universe.

12. Milky Way: The Galaxy In Which We Live In
Where do you think our Solar System is located?

14. Milky Way
The number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy is approximately a few hundred billion
If we could count all the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy…1 star per second…
It would take 2,500 years to count them all.

15. Milky Way The Milky Way is 100,000 ly across.
If you want to visit a neighboring galaxy, you would need to travel the speed of light: 186,000miles per second…for 100,000 years.

16. Our Solar System
If our Solar System were the size of a quarter, the Milky Way Galaxy would be the size of the North American Continent.

17. The Voyager
In 1977, a space craft was launched, called the Voyager. It’s purpose was to take pictures of space, planets, stars, etc.

18. The Voyager
13 years later, Feb. 14, scientists told the Voyager to turn around and take one last panoramic shot of all of the planets.
Keep in mind, the Voyager is 3.7 billion miles away from the Earth, traveling at 40,000mph away from the Sun.

19. The Voyager
In order to accomplish this…the Voyager takes a series of 60 photographs.
Each image contains 640,000 pixels
Each pixel takes 5 1/2 hours to make it back to Earth.
It takes MONTHS to get the photos back.
Here is what was sent:

20. Can you find Earth?
*HINT: The Title of This Picture is: Pale Blue Dot”

21. How amazing, that a picture, from 3.7 billion miles away, just
happened to catch Earth in a beam of light.

22. Cartwheel Galaxy:
400,000,000 light years away

23. Sombrero Galaxy
30 Million Light Years From Earth

24. Pinwheel Galaxy
27 Million Light Years From Earth

25. Sunflower Galaxy
37 Million Light Years Away

26. Let’s Talk About Stars Now…

27. Sun Facts The Sun is the ONLY star in our Solar System 10,000  F
The stars we see at night are outside of our Solar System
10,000  F
93 million miles away
It takes 8 minutes for the Sun’s light to reach our skin

28. The Sun
If Earth were the size of a golf ball, the Sun would have to be 15 feet in diameter.
You could fit 960,000 Earth’s inside the Sun
That is enough golf balls to fill a school bus

29. Betelgeuse 427 Light Years away
Five and a half times the size of the Earth’s ORBIT around the sun
If Earth were a golf ball, Betelgeuse would be the size of 12 Space Needles on top of each other

30. Remember Our Solar System?

31. As fast as light travels it still takes light 8 minutes to reach Earth

32. And 45 minutes to reach Jupiter
Jupiter (fifth from the sun)

33. So..How Big is Betelgeuse?

34. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, AND Jupiter could all orbit around the Sun INSIDE Betelgeuse

35. Betelgeuse 262 Trillion Earths could fit inside of Betelgeuse
That is enough golf balls to fill up the Super Dome…3000 times
The Sun

36. Mu Cephei 3,000 Light Years away
If Earth were a golf ball, Mu Cephei would be the width of 2 golden gate bridges placed end to end
You could fit 2.7 quadrillion Earths incide Mu Cephei

37. Let’s Examine A Quadrillion
1 million seconds ago = 12 days ago
1 billion seconds ago = May 1975
1 trillion seconds ago = 29,700BC
1 quadrillion seconds ago = 30,800,000 years ago

38. Canis Majoris Big “Dog” Star Largest star we have found so far
If Earth were the size of a golf ball, Canis Majoris would be the height of Mt. Everest
Which is 6 miles above sea level

39. Canis Majoris

40. Canis Majoris You could fit 7 quadrillion Earths inside Canis Majoris
That is enough golf balls to cover the state of Texas…22 inches deep

41. How Small Do You Feel Now?