Astronomy: Putting things in perspective!

Have you ever wondered about the size of the Earth, in relation to other planets and stars? Well, these websites really put things in perspective. They contain comparative images of the planets in our solar system, compared with our sun, which is then compared with other suns in the Milky Way, which is then compared with images from much further away, taken by the Hubble telescope.

* The New Size of Our World

If you were impressed after viewing that website's images, well, the story isn't finished yet, but continues here:

* A Tiny Glimpse

These images require large screen resolutions, so set your screen to the largest resolution you can, for example 1280 x 1024.

After viewing these images from NASA, one should be humbled as regards to our relative size. Yet, so far, we still consider the human brain to be "the most complex structure in the known universe," which is a very different matter than mere size:

"The brain is probably the most complex structure in the known universe; complex enough to coordinate the fingers of a concert pianist or to create a three-dimensional landscape from light that falls on a two-dimensional retina." Source: Mind and Machine

I wonder what would happen to that belief if a "complexity" telescope could look out into the universe? Hmmm.....

********************** Subscribe to this blog ********************** Enter your email address below to subscribe to Confessions of a Quackbuster! powered by Bloglet ********** Reciprocal Links: An Invitation