Our Immense Universe
How big is big? Our known Universe is larger than human comprehension. Just recently (January 6th), an article in Nature described discovery of a space explosion. Not just an explosion, but the largest known explosion in space. This blast was equal to “trillions and trillions of atomic bombs” according to astronomer Brian McNamara.
A trillion is a big number…one followed by 12 zeroes. This blast was equivalent to multi-trillion atomic bombs. Why didn’t we feel it here on earth? Because it occured so far away that the energy disappated before reaching earth. How far away? 2.6 billion light-years away. Light travels at 186,300 miles per second in a vacuum. A light-year is the distance light can travel in one year: in miles that’s about 5.9 followed by 12 zeroes. Now multiply that by 2.6 followed by 9 zeroes. Wow! This blast, in miles, was about 15 followed by 21 zeroes distant from Earth. It’s no wonder we were unaffected by a huge blast at this distance.
Now my point is this: our Universe is huge! Beyond human comprehension. The blast I reference didn’t occur at the edge of our Universe–no one knows where that is. It occured out there in just one direction. And it left two gigantic “holes”, each large enough to hold 650 galaxies equivalent to our Milky Way.
So far I’ve focused on the size of our Universe. But think of the energy inherent in this event. Trillions and trillions of atomic bombs worth of energy in just one astronomical explosion. And we didn’t even feel it! It was inconsequential to us here on Earth.
Pondering the immensity of our Universe must cause both spiritualists and scientists alike to say, Wow! For me, this reinforces my belief in God, for I can concieve of no other source of the energy and magnitude of what we call our Universe.
Jerry