1977, the two sisters of Voyager carried the hope of mankind and set off from the earth.
Voyager
In 2012, Voyager 1 flew more than 200 kilometers, successfully crossed the Kuiper belt and came outside the solar system. It has been 45 years since then.
Voyager flight trajectory
Before this, it sent back a photo at 22.98 billion kilometers from the earth , which attracted countless people to think. How small are humans compared to the universe? The photos sent back by
are actually very simple, it is a cosmic landscape picture with the black starry sky as the background. Because the light is too dark, people cannot even get useful information from it.
But it is noticeable that there is a small blue and white dot in the upper right corner of of the photo.
Obviously, this is the earth on which we live.
Dark blue dot
Compared with the entire solar system, our earth is so small, which makes scientists think about this question - what kind of existence does humans really have for the solar system and the entire universe?
You should know that it took thousands of years for us to "escape" from the earth. As the saying goes, there are people outside and there are sky outside. How long does it take for us to walk out of the wider solar system?
Maybe time will give the answer, but judging from the current technological level of human beings, is far away from .
Of course, human targets cannot only look at the "small" solar system. In the entire Milky Way galaxy, there are countless galaxies like the solar system. According to astronomers' observations, there are about 200 billion stars in the Milky Way.
That is to say, there are about 120 million "suns" in the entire Milky Way.
The structure of the Milky Way and the solar system
They are in their respective regions, nourishing their own planets, and perhaps somewhere, they have formed intelligent creatures as advanced as humans .
If there are really creatures that are more advanced than humans, they may be able to let humans see a bright future.
At least for now, human beings are small, and even leaving the earth is only a small number of elites.
How small are humans
Humans are, beyond your imagination. Next, let’s start from our lives and take you to appreciate the insignificance of humans.
In our lives, some people think that a building that is dozens of stories high is like a "big beast". When people stand at its feet, it seems to be swallowed up.
is compared with Mount Everest . No matter how tall the buildings are, they are pale in comparison. Humans stand at the feet of Mount Everest, even ants are inferior to those of ants.
The world's highest peak, Mount Everest
The height of Mount Everest reaches 8848 meters, but it is very "peedy" compared to the diameter of the earth.
The diameter of the earth is about 12742km. We observe Mount Everest from space and can't even find out where it is.
Facing the diameter of the earth, even the high-speed rail (speed 300km per hour) that humans are proud of has to run for 42 hours without stopping.
To the earth, humans are as small as sand by the sea .
human beings' only home
Of course, this comparison is just the beginning. In the subsequent comparison, the earth cannot even match the unit of measurement.
The solar diameter is about 1.392×10^⁶ km, and its mass accounts for 99% of the entire solar system.
The diameter of the solar system is about 19 billion kilometers, and it took Voyager 1 35 years to cross the solar system.
rough structure of the solar system
Compared with this, the earth is like a comparison between humans and the earth. We cannot use it for reference at this time.
There has been debate in astronomy about 's boundary 's solar system.
If Neptune is used as the boundary, the diameter of the solar system is about 60 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is 150 million kilometers).
If the heliosphere at the weakest point is bounded, it is about 100 astronomical units.
If it is based on , the Alt Cloud , it is a terrifying 200,000 astronomical units.
From here, we need to use light-year to calculate. 1 light-year is equivalent to the distance that light travels for one year, the speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second, and a year is 9460730472580 kilometers.
The maximum diameter of the Alt cloud is about 2 light years. Voyager 1 needs at least .3 million years of when it flies to the boundary of the Alt cloud.
Orte Cloud
From this moment on, the earth as a unit of measurement has completely lost its meaning.
The solar system is located at the spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy , while the diameter of the Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years.
That is to say, if you can take photos of the entire Milky Way, it will be difficult for people to find the existence of the solar system from billions of galaxies.
From now on, the sun and the solar system as units of measurement have also lost their meaning.
Neighbors of the Milky Way, Andromeda Galaxy has a diameter of about 220,000 light years and is 2.45 million light years from Earth. However, in the entire universe, it is the closest group of galaxies to Earth .
In the future Andromeda and the Milky Way are likely to collide
This shows how empty and vast the entire universe is.
The Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy belong to the same galaxy group , consisting of about 50 galaxies similar to the Milky Way, with a diameter of about 10 million light years.
Do you think this galaxy group is big enough? Far more than that!
This galaxy group and other unknown galaxy groups belong to VIV super galaxy cluster , with a diameter of about 110 million light years.
Virgo supercluster belongs to the Rania Kaia supercluster . It looks like a filamentous structure overall, so large that people cannot find the Milky Way with their naked eyes.
The diameter of the Rania Kaia supercluster is about 520 million light-years, and it contains 100,000 galaxies that are like the Milky Way, with a mass of 100,000 times that of the Milky Way.
Our position in the Rania Kaia Supercluster is shown in the figure
Compared with the entire observable universe , the Rania Kaia Supercluster is not even a "baby in swaddling clothes".
The observable universe has a radius of about 45.6 billion light years, about 180 times that of the Rania Kaia supercluster.
What’s even more terrifying is that this is far from the end of the universe. No one knows how big the universe is. Perhaps even the observable universe today is just the "tip of the iceberg".
From this point of view, humans are really too small, and perhaps even insignificant cannot describe us.
Human beings are not only small, but even the proud civilization pales in comparison in the entire universe.
The vast universe is too mysterious
Human civilization
Previously, scientists divided the civilization levels based on the use of energy, among which humans, , cannot be considered even if they are level 1 civilization.
1 level civilization, also known as planetary civilization , smart creatures live on planets, rely on various renewable and non-renewable resources to obtain energy, have made some achievements in the aerospace field, and can control the planets they live in at will.
According to the standards, the level of human civilization is only 0.7.
2-level civilization, also known as stellar civilization, can completely use its stars to generate energy. If human civilization is a level 2 civilization, humans can shuttle between the solar system at will.
3-level civilization is called a galaxy civilization. Smart creatures can shuttle back and forth between the galaxies where the stars are located and rely on other stars to obtain energy.
The vast galaxy
That is to say, humans can use any star in the Milky Way to create energy for their needs.
4-level civilization is called galaxy civilization . At this time, people are no longer satisfied with the energy generated by stars, but instead ask for dark matter or dark energy.
5 level civilization, multidimensional space civilization, after people have higher energy, they can realize the transformation of multidimensional space, such as inventing a device to transform humans into four-dimensional and five-dimensional creatures.
Dimensional concept
In the novel " Three-body ", the " Two-way Foil " placed into the solar system is likely to be the work of the fifth-level civilization.
6 level civilization, also known as parallel universe civilization, people have been able to transform energy and matter into other parallel worlds.
7 level civilization, also known as the god-level civilization, human beings are like the world's creator , using energy to create anything needed, like a god living in the universe.
Humans can also freely shuttle between multiverse .
Multiverse concept
In front of the universe, human beings seem insignificant. After seeing the huge universe, I hope everyone's worries can also disappear.
