There were times when the world of people was limited to the surface of the Earth under their feet. With the development of technology, mankind has expanded its horizons. Now people are thinking about whether our world has boundaries and what is the scale of the Universe? In fact, no one can imagine its real dimensions. Because we do not have suitable reference points. Even professional astronomers draw for themselves (at least in their imagination) models reduced many times over. The fundamental thing is the exact correlation of the dimensions that the objects of the Universe have. And when solving mathematical problems, they are generally unimportant, because they turn out to be just numbers that an astronomer operates with.
About the structure of the solar system
To talk about the scale of the universe, you must first understand what is closest to us. First, it is a star called the Sun. Secondly, the planets revolving around it. In addition to them, there are also satellites moving around some space objects. And don't forget the asteroid belt.
The planets in this list have been of interest to people for a long time, because theyare the most visible. From their study, the science of the structure of the Universe began to develop - astronomy. A star is recognized as the center of the solar system. It is also its largest object. Compared to the Earth, the Sun is a million times larger in volume. It only seems relatively small because it is so far from our planet.
All the planets of the solar system are divided into three groups:
- Earthly. It includes planets that are similar to the Earth in appearance. For example, these are Mercury, Venus and Mars.
- Giant objects. They are much larger than the first group. In addition, they contain a lot of gases, which is why they are also called gas. This includes Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
- Dwarf planets. They are, in fact, large asteroids. One of them until recently was included in the composition of the main planets - this is Pluto.
Planets "do not fly apart" from the Sun due to the force of gravity. And they cannot fall on a star because of the high speeds. Objects are really very "nimble". For example, the Earth's speed is approximately 30 kilometers per second.
How to compare the sizes of objects in the solar system?
Before you try to imagine the scale of the universe, it is worth understanding the Sun and the planets. After all, they are also difficult to correlate with each other. Most often, the conditional size of a fiery star is identified with a billiard ball, the diameter of which is 7 cm. It is worth noting that in reality it reaches about 1400thousand km. In such a "toy" layout, the first planet from the Sun (Mercury) is at a distance of 2 meters 80 centimeters. In this case, the ball of the Earth will have a diameter of only half a millimeter. It is located from the star at a distance of 7.6 meters. The distance to Jupiter on this scale will be 40 m, and to Pluto - 300.
If we talk about objects that are outside the solar system, then the closest star is Proxima Centauri. It will be removed so much that this simplification turns out to be too small. And this despite the fact that it is located within the Galaxy. What to say about the scale of the universe. As you can see, it is virtually unlimited. I always want to know how the Earth and the Universe relate. And after receiving the answer, I can’t believe that our planet and even the Galaxy are an insignificant part of the vast world.
What units are used to measure distances in space?
A centimeter, a meter and even a kilometer - all these quantities turn out to be negligible already within the solar system. What to say about the universe. To indicate the distance within the Galaxy, a quantity called a light year is used. This is the time it takes for light to travel in one year. Recall that one light second is equal to almost 300 thousand km. Therefore, when translated into familiar kilometers, a light year turns out to be approximately equal to 10 thousand billion. It is impossible to imagine it, therefore the scale of the Universe is unimaginable for a person. If you need to specify the distance between neighboring galaxies, then the lighta year is not enough. An even larger size is needed. It turned out to be a parsec, which is 3.26 light years.
How does the Galaxy work?
She is a gigantic formation made up of stars and nebulae. A small part of them is visible every night in the sky. The structure of our galaxy is very complex. It can be considered as a highly compressed ellipsoid of revolution. Moreover, it has an equatorial part and a center. The equator of the Galaxy is mostly made up of gaseous nebulae and hot massive stars. In the Milky Way, this part is in its central region.
The solar system is no exception to the rule. It is also located near the equator of the Galaxy. By the way, most of the stars form a huge disk with a diameter of 100 thousand light years and a thickness of 1500. If we return to the scale that was used to represent the solar system, then the dimensions of the Galaxy will become commensurate with the distance from the Earth to the Sun. This is an incredible number. Therefore, the Sun and the Earth turn out to be crumbs in the Galaxy.
What objects exist in the universe?
Let's list the most basic ones:
- Stars are massive self-luminous balls. They arise from an environment consisting of a mixture of dust and gases. Most of them are hydrogen and helium.
- Relic radiation. They are electromagnetic pulses propagating in space. Its temperature is 270 degrees Celsius. Moreover, this radiation is the same in all directions. This isproperty is called isotropy. In addition, some mysteries of the Universe are associated with it. For example, it became clear that it arose at the time of the big bang. That is, it exists from the very beginning of the existence of the Universe. It also confirms the idea that it expands equally in all directions. And this statement is true not only for the present time. So it was in the very beginning.
- Dark matter. That is the hidden mass. These are the objects of the Universe that cannot be studied by direct observation. In other words, they do not emit electromagnetic waves. But they have a gravitational effect on other bodies.
- Black holes. They are not well studied, but very well known. This happened due to the mass description of such objects in fantastic works. In fact, a black hole is a body from which electromagnetic radiation cannot propagate due to the fact that the second space velocity on it is equal to the speed of light. It is worth remembering that it is the second cosmic velocity that must be communicated to the object so that it leaves the space object.
In addition, there are quasars and pulsars in the Universe.
Mysterious Universe
It is full of what has not yet been fully discovered, not studied. And what has been discovered often throws up new questions and related mysteries of the universe. Even the well-known Big Bang theory can be attributed to them. It is really only a provisional doctrine, since humanity can only guess how ithappened.
The second mystery is the age of the universe. It can be calculated approximately from the already mentioned relic radiation, observation of globular clusters and other objects. Today, scientists agree that the age of the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years. Another mystery - if there is life on other planets? After all, not only in the solar system, suitable conditions arose, and the Earth appeared. And the Universe is most likely filled with similar formations.
One?
And what is beyond the Universe? What is there where the human eye has not penetrated? Is there something beyond this border? If so, how many universes are there? These are questions that scientists have yet to find answers to. Our world is like a box of surprises. It once seemed to be made up of only the Earth and the Sun, with a small number of stars in the sky. Then the outlook expanded. As a result, the boundaries have expanded. Not surprisingly, many bright minds have long concluded that the Universe is only part of an even larger entity.
