The Local Group (wikipedia)

Our Sun is one of hundreds of billions of stars in a spiral whirlpool of gravitationally-bound suns we call the Milky Way galaxy. The closest star is 4 light-years, or 24,000,000,000,000 miles (4 * 186,000 * 31,556,926, the number of seconds in a year). To reach the farthest stars of the galaxy, add 5 zeros.

Picture the Milky Way as 100 miles in size. The Sun and its planets would be the size of an eraser on a pencil, the Sun a grain of sand, and you smaller than an atom.

But this is the size of the earth and sun and planets within a galaxy. A single galaxy.

There are a few galaxies near the Milky Way (each separated by unthinkably sparse areas) called "the local group" of galaxies.

And there are many many of these groups, each with a few or thousands of galaxies. These groups are associated into larger groups called clusters, with some clusters close enough gravitationally to form superclusters.

So when you are irritated at some minor inconvenience, keep things in perspective.  ¶ 12:54 AM (0) comments