Andromeda, our nearest galactic neighbor, is only 2,500,000 light years away. That is, the light of Andromeda\u2019s stars requires a mere 2.5 million years, on average, to reach us, traveling at 186,000 miles per second.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been reading Richard Panek\u2019s The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very good.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought I might share a few numbers from\u00a0page 36 of the book, simply because I thought them stunning:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It turns out that everything within galaxies is moving, and that, throughout the universe, all galaxies are themselves in motion.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every two minutes, the Earth moves 2500 miles in its orbit around the Sun.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s 75,000 miles per hour.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Try to imagine that on some quiet, still, and serene day.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreover, during that same two-minute period, the Sun itself has moved 20,000 miles as it orbits the center of our galaxy.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s 600,000 miles per hour.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thus, in a seventy-year lifespan, the Sun will have moved roughly 300,000,000,000 miles.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet, even at that speed, the Sun requires 200,000,000 years to orbit a single time around our spiral galaxy.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet, to puny human, stars and galaxies appear to be fixed. \u00a0Our time-frame is so short that we don\u2019t see them moving or rotating. \u00a0And, to a humanoid observer somewhere in our \u201cneighbor\u201d galaxy of Andromeda, our own Milky Way galaxy would appear serenely motionless, as well.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Think about it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And then ask yourself how much of what we focus on every day really matters.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Victoria, British Columbia<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve been reading Richard Panek\u2019s The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality. \u00a0 It\u2019s very good. \u00a0 I thought I might share a few numbers from\u00a0page 36 of the book, simply because I thought them stunning: \u00a0 It turns out that everything within galaxies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Andromeda,](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/07\/600px-Andromeda_galaxy.jpg\")
<\/a>