BLOW YOUR MIND
This is Earth this is where you live and this is where you live in your neighbourhood the solar system [Applause] here's the distance between the Earth and the moon doesn't look too far does it think again at their farthest point the earth and the moon are two hundred and fifty two thousand eighty eight miles away inside that distance you could fit every planet in our entire solar system but let's talk about planets the Great Red Spot on Jupiter that's about two times as big as Earth and Saturn is about nine times wider than Earth Saturn's rings are so large that a few of the fragments within them are as large as mountains but that's nothing compared to our Sun just remember this is Earth and this is Earth from the moon this is Earth from Mars here's Earth from just behind Saturn's rings and here's Earth from just beyond Neptune four billion miles away but a billion is a big number so let's put that in perspective one million seconds equals about eleven and a half days whereas 1 billion seconds equals over 31 years let's step back a bit here's the size of Earth compared with the size of our Sun terrifying right and here's that exact same Sun from the surface of Mars as Carl Sagan once mused the total number of stars in the universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth and there are some stars out there that are much bigger than our little wimpy Sun the biggest star we know of V Y Canis Majoris is about 2,000 times the diameter of our Sun but none of those compares to the size of a galaxy in fact if you shrink the size of our solar system down to the size of a quarter and trans the Milky Way galaxy down using the same scale the diameter of the Milky Way will be roughly the size of the United States that's because the Milky Way galaxy is huge it's diameters about 100,000 light-years wide which when converted to miles is about 621 quadrillion 371 trillion 192 billion 237 million three hundred thirty three thousand eight hundred ninety miles inside of all that is you live in this tiny portion of the Milky Way but even still our galaxy is a little runt compared with some others NGC 674 for a spiral galaxy similar to our own is twice as wide as the Milky Way stretching over two hundred thousand light-years across it is a massive but let's think bigger in this picture alone taken by the Hubble telescope there are thousands and thousands of galaxies each containing millions or billions of stars with their own planets some of the objects seen here may have formed as many as 11 billion years ago just three billion years after the Big Bang [Music] this period of time is considered one of the busiest star-forming periods and just keep this in mind that's a picture of a very small part of the universe so if you ever feeling upset about your favourite show being cancelled or the fact that they play Christmas music way too early just remember this is your home earth
About the Creator
Keep reading
More stories from hellen wanjiru and writers in Humans and other communities.
HOW THE INTERNET IS CHANGING YOUR BRAIN
HOW THE INTERNET IS CHANGING YOUR BRAIN Just imagine what life would be without the internet some of us actually remember the time before everything was connected but the thought of living without smartphones maps where search engines ran at our fingertips now seems completely alien to us but how is our increasing reliance on the online world affecting us our relationships sources of information in the way we interact with each other is rapidly changing and there are even noticeable effects occurring within our brains with more and more devices relying on the internet it's no surprise that worldwide access is continually increasing in 2016 an estimated 3.5 billion people across the world access online services the top three countries were China with 721 million users followed by India and then the US with 290 million users by far the most common language used online is English followed by Chinese and Spanish the reliance on using the Internet is clearly changing across generations mainly depending on those who had to adapt to the new technology or those who grew up with that being readily accessible Generation X Internet users who were born between the mid 1960s and early 1980s logged an average of a hundred and ten minutes of mobile internet usage each day while Millennials who were born from the early 80s onward and grew up with the internet locked in the average of a hundred and eighty five minutes per day social media and messaging apps have become crucial to how we live our lives and communicate with more than a billion people regularly using apps like WhatsApp and even more using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter now with increasing use of Internet services it seems only natural that our behaviour is changing as well communication through these platforms is far more common which means phone calls and text messages are dropping in popularity and the use of online shopping and services has caused a sharp decline in the uses of traditional high street stores our towns and cities are starting to look very different to a few decades ago and this can all be attributed to what's now available online so how is all this affecting our brains with such a wealth of information at our fingertips the prevalence of the Internet is changing away our work millennials for example have been found to be far more forgetful than previous generations this is thought to be a direct result of the constant distractions that connectivity brings the basic principle behind memory is that the more a piece of information is repeated and thought about in your short-term memory the stronger its stored within your long-term memory constant new information however prevents this process from taking place as effectively and far less is permanently stored further to this the knowledge that information is readily available online means that you're less likely to form a memory of it while previous generations would have memorized directions on a map for example now there's a reliance on being able to access this GPS app on your fault we're also becoming more addicted to our smartphones constant glances to check for messages where updates means that we're becoming more and more used to developing a habit of being distracted our brains are less used to transitioning into deeper modes of thinking which makes it more difficult to do this when we need to some research has also shown that the constant flow of information has meant that we are losing cognitive control this means not only is our ability to control our minds reducing but also our ability to decide what we're thinking about the more you rely on your phone and an app to provide information to you the less you are able to determine what's important to focus on we are increasingly more concerned with information that's new as opposed to what's actually important so what can be done although technology is clearly affecting the way our brains work it's not necessarily a bad thing throughout history inventions have always enabled us to focus less on one thing so our time can be used somewhere else washing machines for example means that people spend far less time on cleaning clothes so these extra hours each day are taken up by work or other activities similarly so the ability to communicate and find information much faster on the internet means that we have extra mental capacity for other processes still reducing our screen time can help to keep our brains more active and malleable and it's a good idea to be aware of how much time you're spending on distractions each day so my advice to keep track of how much time you're spending a lie and you know unplug every once in a while.
By hellen wanjiru10 months ago in Earth
The Tension Between Civic Engagement and Individualism
Consistent, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial interactions between individuals create the social fabric that stitches people together in society. This social fabric is a must for societies to function, and individuals should remain attentive to the fact that any benefits they receive that they did not produce come at the cost of someone else. As the adage goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch; someone prepared the meal. Thus, individuals have a responsibility to pay it forward if they wish to continue to be able to glean from the benefits of a generous community.
By Geno C. Foral3 days ago in Humans
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.