I came upon a very interesting video while perusing youtube and wanted to write this post about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCmJmTYS7Zw

The video details stars and their sizes, also comparing them to earth. It is remarkable to think about how small we are in size compared to the universe. To highlight a key point of the video I found a photo depicting the sizes of several stars in comparison with the earth and sun.

I believe this image is a very powerful one because it demonstrates how small earth, and also us people, actually are compared to the universe and the other planets in it. For me personally, the picture put the universe and the planets into perspective like never before because visual rhetoric like this is very effective at showing the massive size of the planets described. I always knew that the the planets and the universe are enormous because that was the information I was told as child growing up, however I never before tried to visually imagine the sizes of the planets. This is what makes this picture very fresh and incredible despite the fact that we already know the background behind it.  It also helps me think positively about life in general. The reason being it shows how insignificant all of our lives are compared to the grand schemes of the universe. It helps me understand that we really shouldn’t be taking stress in life because there is so much going on besides our problems. We should just sit back and enjoy the ride while we’re here for the short amount of time that we are.

Did you know that it would take 11,666,192,832,000,000 earths to fill the star called VY Canis Majoris? Thats almost 12 quadrillion earths!! The enormity of space and the certainty of such humongous stars actually existing make this image a truly remarkable piece of visual candy.