Since we have yet to secure some “space talk and chill” time with Neil deGrasse Tyson, we’ve been left to our own devices when it comes to digging up a ton of facts about the universe related to time and space that make us feel extremely small — as in, less than microscopic. Seriously, we’ve never felt more insignificant in our lives than the moment we discovered how minor we are relative to the rest of the universe.
So, if the only thing you know about time is how slowly it passes when you’re counting down the days ’til the weekend, then we’re about hit you with some space-related realness that will completely blow your mind.
Prepare to geek out and be humbled by these 11 facts about time and space that will make you realize just how tiny humans are in the grand scheme of things.
1. Earth really isn’t that big.
We totally remember beaming with smug pride as a kid after learning that Earth is the fifth largest planet in our solar system, but that’s because we had yet to be humbled by the largest known star in the universe: VY Canis Majoris. The red hypergiant is 1,420 times larger than the sun, and is currently expelling 30 times the mass of Earth every year in the form of dust and gas as it nears its demise.
2. The number of stars in existence is unknown.
At any given moment, we can simply use Google to find out how many people occupy our planet, but when it comes to tracking the number of stars there are, things start to get a bit fuzzy. Cornell University’s “Ask An Astronomer,” David Kornreich offered an explanation to Space.com that involved enough zeroes to make our eyes cross:
“Kornreich used a very rough estimate of 10 trillion galaxies in the universe. Multiplying that by the Milky Way’s estimated 100 billion stars results in a large number indeed: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, or a “1” with 24 zeros after it. Kornreich emphasized that number is likely a gross underestimation, as more detailed looks at the universe will show even more galaxies.”
3. Our sun takes up most of the solar system’s mass.
If you were lucky, your parents raised you to believe that you are a unique, special star (and you *totally* are), but we hate to break it ya: You’re nowhere near as crucial to humankind’s existence as the sun, which accounts for 99 percent of the solar system’s mass. Damn, we are extremely small. Still special though.
4. Light from space takes a LONG time to reach Earth.
The speed at which light travels in a vacuum is 186,282 miles per second, which is pretty impressive. But even at that rate, it still takes the light from other stars quite a while to reach planet Earth, which is why looking into space is the same as looking back in time.
On average, it takes sunlight eight minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth. When you think about how big the distance must be if it takes light — traveling that fast — so much time to get to us, taking up roughly 5-7 feet of space for less than 100 years feels like it barely exists at all.
5. The universe is beyond ancient.
At an astounding 13.8 billion years old, the universe makes the average human life span look like a blip on the radar of existence.
6. And it’s still expanding.
While we’re down here on solid ground scrambling to make the most of our seemingly important existences, dark energy is thought to be causing universal expansion, which boggles the mind, especially when one considers the size of the observable universe.
As PBS reports:
“In 2005 a team of astrophysicists led by J. Richard Gott of Princeton performed a detailed calculation of the radius of the observable universe. Their answer was 45.7 billion light-years — more than three times bigger than our first, naïve estimate! Within this sphere lie hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars.”
7. New planets are constantly being discovered.
We’re still not sure if we’re the only living species even vaguely like us out there, but it’s kind of hard to find out when we haven’t even nailed down the number of planets that exist.
In addition to the discovery of seven Earth-like planets scientists announced earlier this year, the Kepler space telescope identified more than 200 new potential planets in the month of June alone.