A Letter For Incomprehensible Space

The mindblowing size of the universe

The size of our observable universe is incomprehensible. There are an estimated 2 trillion GALAXIES which altogether hold 200 billion trillion stars. It’s not even important to count the planets and other space rocks in this scenario - there are so many that it’s meaningless.

Here we are on earth, the 3rd rock from our sun in an otherwise uninspiring galaxy we call the Milky Way. The closest galaxy to us, Canis Major Dwarf, is 25000 light years away from our solar system. To best understand that distance, if you take the size of the Milky Way, the distance to Canis Major is 20X that.

When I was a teenager my Uncle Jeff would explain this to me and my cousins while sitting around a campfire out at our cabin in Western Wisconsin. You could see the Milky Way out there very clearly some nights. That discussion always fascinated me because you could look and see the vastness but that vastness was just a spec of dust in the grand scheme of things.

And yet at the same time there is matter and life on earth that is so small that it also seems incomprehensible. What is big is small. It’s such a wonderful juxtaposition.

I find it very clarifying at times to think about this. I’ve saved this video on my phone that I’ll open up and watch sometimes when I feel a bit of anxiety coming on to help me find that clarity.

The video is a visualization of what it would take to navigate from one end of the universe and find earth.

I’m sure there are people who watch this and it gives them anxiety - I can understand that point of view. It makes our existence seem so absolutely miniscule.

It makes me question our understanding or construct of time and distance. What if that construct is just wrong? What if it’s fundamentally flawed and these insurmountable “distances” don’t exist the way we think they do, both in “time” and “space”?

Maybe it’s not so crazy to think that everything is a single point, as a manner of speaking, and we can get anywhere in and around the universe easily.

I’m grateful for the ability to challenge the incomprehensible. To stretch my mind to conceptualize the vastness as something other than vastness. It matters both more than anything and not at all.

With love and deep appreciation,

-Andrew