A Stunning New Map Reveals For The First Time Where Our Galaxy Fits Into The Universe

It's truly amazing.

Forget that our Sun is just a tiny, tiny part of the galaxy -- our entire galaxy is just a tiny, tiny, almost imperceptible part of the known universe.

Somewhere in some far-off galaxy half way across the known universe from us, there is some alien species who have their own version of the "Hubble Deep-Field" image -- an image taken of a small part of their sky that shows thousands and thousands of galaxies as little anonymous dots. The Milky way could be one of those anonymous dots that are just like the other thousands of dots in their version of the Hubble Deep Field image, in which case that alien would probably not even really take any specific note of our galaxy among the others.

Our entire galaxy is simply a relatively unremarkable little spec of near-nothingness in the vastness of the universe, just like all of the other billions of specs of near-nothingness that are the other galaxies.


I don't mean to depress anyone by making them feel insignificant. On the contrary -- I think it is amazing to be a part of this grand structure called "the Universe', and I think it is also amazing that we, such an infinitesimal part of it all, can actually have at least a rudimentary understanding of the universe around us.

originally posted by: AllSourceIntel

It looks like we're a dingleberry on a giant butthole

Awesome...both of the videos gave me chills.

My dad passed four years, one month, and three days ago. He believed that we are all "stardust" - and my mom thinks of him out there zooming around checking things out...these videos (and the music in the one Jude posted - Wow) made my heart swell with love for him, and hope.

Kinda makes "job-hunting" seem a trivial, egocentric, useless pursuit.

Beautiful and makes me think of magnetic flux lines.

I don't think of big bang expansion instead i think of magnets and electricity.

I don't think we humans could ever grasp the immensity of the universe. The Hubble deep field covered a minute slither of the universe and yet it unveiled hundreds if not thousands of galaxies, each one made up of hundreds of billions of stars.

And if we could ever catalogue the entire sky then we would find billions of galaxies, and if only one star in ten galaxies had a planet could sustain life, that means that there could be hundreds of millions of civilizations just like us in the universe.

The odds for us finding an extraterrestrial civilization are 'astronomically' high, but the chances of meeting them is another question altogether.

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

Imagine the mapping of the universe that will be available in just a few years.

or the utter shock to realize we are looking at the holographic brain of the Creator (God)

doesn't the OP graphic remind the observer of our nerve/brain synapses

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
...The odds for us finding an extraterrestrial civilization are 'astronomically' high, but the chances of meeting them is another question altogether.

That's generally how I feel.

Intelligent ET life is almost surely out there somewhere, considering the size of the universe. However, depending on how common that intelligent life is, it could be that intelligent life (with a technological civilization) that exists at the same time as our human civilization is rare enough that we may not ever stumble across each other.

They could be across the galaxy looking back at the billions of other stars in our galaxy and not even realize there is another technological civilization (us) among those billions of stars.

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

The only thing that dwarf's the universe is man's ego and oh how it likes to blow itself up to gigantic proportions!

Just to throw out things that aren't there these small clusters seem to be like veins. As the energy our earth creates gives energy to a bigger source. We supply energy to a bigger picture. Sorry I just like far far fetched ideas. I find them intriguing.

originally posted by: St Udio
a reply to: AllSourceIntel

Imagine the mapping of the universe that will be available in just a few years.

 

or the utter shock to realize we are looking at the holographic brain of the Creator (God)

doesn't the OP graphic remind the observer of our nerve/brain synapses

That seriously just blew my entire mind.

Oh god what if we're all just a figment of some F'd up kids imagination?

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

so awesome....

a reply to: AllSourceIntel
Thanks for the wonderful video

a reply to: Nettlas
I've thought about that as well. We may be germs inside of a human x infinity

originally posted by: xXSvenXx
Beautiful and makes me think of magnetic flux lines.

I don't think of big bang expansion instead i think of magnets and electricity.

I think so too. Whenever a single atom or electron starts to move, it create a small electromagnetic field. Whenever an electromagnetic field interacts with an atom or electron, it creates a force on that particle. The two end up creating a feedback system, until you get one strong local magnetic field shepherding everything; solar flares, aurora borealis, comet tails and plasma loops.

This is why space exploration is on one of my favorite boards as well. Love seeing things like this and hope to see quite a bit more in the near future as well.

originally posted by: [post=18374644]AllSourceIntel

Even our galaxy is a mere speck in a larger structure

I wonder if there are people living inside me. Horton hears a who style.
And I wonder if we are living inside someone else.

As if Laniakea is actually microscopic relative to something else

We call it a supercluster but it just ends up being part of an electron circling an atom of something bigger

a reply to: yourmaker

Or what if, you keep scaling upwards, and find a mirror reflection of your schizophrenic self.

originally posted by: Jennyfrenzy
a reply to: AllSourceIntel

Wow!! It's really bizarre how the universe resembles neurons and brain activity..

The comparisons are pretty wild!

That is maybe why other intelligent and more advanced species avoid us. They know the comparisment is true and avoid us based on our behaviour, they consider us a contagious cancer.

(sorry, not having a swell day)

originally posted by: BeingBlessed
Just to throw out things that aren't there these small clusters seem to be like veins. As the energy our earth creates gives energy to a bigger source. We supply energy to a bigger picture. Sorry I just like far far fetched ideas. I find them intriguing.

That's pretty much the implications of what many here are getting at and I don't find it far fetched at all. In fact, I've believed this to be true for a long time.

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

Way beyond fractals. Wonderful. And somehow, the name "Laniakea" quite moves me.

F&S&