How large is our galaxy?

[Zet]

That what I love just laying in the nature stargazing, that something so far away, that shine so bright. It just makes everything feel so small in comparison, and that there must be, somewhere of all those galaxies, in all of the universe, that there must be life then just this here on earth. For me that is enough. I don't need more technology to be able to travel, as the technology will only get more and more advances and in the end it will be able to enslave the whole humankind only for the enjoyment of 1 person. Let it be a mystery.

[ZackT]

Yea, with the way society is, I don't see us getting in to space for probably another 100 years like someone else said.

Which freaking sucks because I want up there so badly But it seems like the rest of the world just doesn't give a damn.

[Zet]

and with how society is, its only purpose with inhabiting other planet will be of looting unfortunately :p

[Bowyn Aerrow]

The diameter of the Milky Way (our home Galaxy) is estimated to be between 100,000–120,000 light-years yet the majority of it is only 1,000 light years thick.

Can't wrap your head around that? Try how many stars are thought to be contained in it: 200–400 billion stars. This means in the Galaxy there are 28.5 to 57 stars for each human on earth.

Still can't wrap your mind around that? :biggrin:

But that is small, real small, when you consider that there are 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Basically for every human on earth there are at least 28.5 galaxies.

Humans exploration of space is very limited compared to all of that. Voyager one was launched in 1977 (I remember watching that event on TV) and has been traveling at super speeds (very fast for us humans) for 34 years and only just passed into interstellar space last last year. They universe will die from Entropy long before Voyager reaches the the distance the Galaxy is in diameter.

We humans are capable of short rage space flight. As a matter of sheer energy, we humans are able to produce and manipulate the energies needed to send humans to Mars.

Like processor speeds and other aspects of the computer technology were we can easily predict how far, how fast and how powerful our machines will be, we can also predict with remarkable accuracy how much energy we can produce and manipulate at any given point in time in the future.

IT won't be until around 2050 that we will be able to produce and manipulate the energies needed to send humans to the outer gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune).

It won't be until around 2150 that we will be able to produce and manipulate the energies needed to reach Alpha Centauri. A mere 4.2 light years away. Even then it would be a slow trip taking about 20 years as we will be able to attain low end relativistic speeds. Relativistic Velocities are from 30% the speed of light (c ) to 99.999% c.

Only 50 years 2200 after that will we have the ability to produce and manipulate the energies needed to conquer the near stars within 80 light years of us.

Assuming that we can figure out a way around the light barrier, it won't be until around 2600 that we will be able to manipulate and produce the energies needed to make a 'quick' trip across the galaxy - quick as in within a single human lifetime....

[gilhooly]

Can we get an inter or intra galactic ban on homophobes. I don't like sharing space with those guys. Can we deport them to hell under any existing treaty. I am in favor of that. Civilization requires men to love men. Homophobes are uncivilized bullies who like to pick on gay kids.

PS Send every goddamn politician to hell. We don't need them either.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Can we get an inter or intra galactic ban on homophobes. I don't like sharing space with those guys. Can we deport them to hell under any existing treaty. I am in favor of that. Civilization requires men to love men. Homophobes are uncivilized bullies who like to pick on gay kids.

PS Send every goddamn politician to hell. We don't need them either.

Things escape hell - nothing escapes black holes...

[monk]

[Waylon777]

http://htwins.net/scale/

You can take a look in this cool interaction website.
Also, A galaxy is usually made out of billions of stars, and one star is more than 100 times Earth's size. So, if we say that the galaxy is the Frisbee disk, then we would be around the size of an electron or quarks.

[Zet]

PS Send every goddamn politician to hell. We don't need them either.

"We don't need no education"

[Rainbowmum]

Our galaxy contains about 200 billion stars, that alone is amazing.
And just think the universe is still expanding.

Check this link out.