You have probably seen this before, but I think it is healthy to be reminded of the size of things every now and then...

So where is VV Cephei A located in the universe?

...approximately 3,000 light years from Earth.

VV Cephei A is estimated to have roughly 100 solar masses. I saw an article on reddit yesterday talking about a black hole that was recently discovered that has the mass of 18 billion suns! Now that is freaking MASSIVE!!!!
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn...vered.html

I am small

Another excellent tool to help with perspective.

Every pixel in the illustration represents one person alive on Earth. The first one is you. The rest are everyone else.

Click on the link above to see the illustration!

This is another visual representation that gives an interesting take on our place in this world. All 6,500,000,000 of us fit on that one twig in the tree of life that fits on Earth that is less than a pixel when being compared to stars such as VV Cephei A.

I like this thread. You can learn a lot from these simple illustrations.

Great stuff. I particularly liked the population representation. It's a relief to be one part of something so big in my opinion.

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This is one of my favorites. It's a consciousness alterer for me. It's 10 minutes long, but enthralling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2cmlhfdxuY


I can't seem to embed it.

From coffee bean to carbon atom.
(use the slider below the image)

Man, is anybody else surprised at how big the amoeba is? Can we see those if we try hard enough?

And another one...



This film shows the known universe as mapped through astronomical observations. Every satellite, moon, planet, star, and galaxy is represented to scale and in its correct, measured location according to the best scientific research to date.

One from Nikon.

and

The Scale of the Universe.

Depth of ocean to scale.

Thickness of Earth, to scale.