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The Scales of the Cosmos

The Scales of the Cosmos

This is a funky introduction to the subject
of Astronomy.  It is filled with hyperbole
and little fact.  Some of the facts are important.

ŠOur Solar System lives in a Galaxy 
ŠA Galaxy is a group of celestial bodies
   held together by gravity.
ŠThe name of our Galaxy is the Milkyway.
ŠOur Milkyway is 100,000 LightYears big.
ŠOur Solar System has 9 planets.
They are:  (remember this from 7th grade?)
       Mercury
       Venus
       EARTH--3rd rock from the sun 93 milion miles
              So, 93,000,000 miles is one 
              Astronomical Unit (AU).  Of course,
              what else would we call it?
       Mars at 1.5 AU
       Jupiter--a big planet.  More mass than all
                               planets combined.
                               5 AU
       Saturn--10AU  and has rings--must be engaged.
       Uranus--20AU polarized toward sun and please
                    watch your pronunciation.
       Netpune--30AU with 8 moons!
       Pluto--  40AU and not mickey's dog.

Now, light travels 186,000 miles per second or
                   300,000 kilmeters per second.
In addition, get the calculaters out, light will
   travel 63,000 Astronomical Units in one year.
Which is more than the  airline steward traveled
   while we were still dating.
Oh, by the way, our Galaxy is a SPIRAL.
    New planets are formed in the ARMS of the spiral.
Galaxies are joined together by FILAMENTS.
Our Galaxy is one of several grouped together
    by gravity to form a LOCAL CLUSTER.
While the Milkyway is 100,000 LightYears big,
   our LOCAL CLUSTER is about 300,000 LightYears big.
The TOTAL OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE is 15 billion LightYears big.

Now, the show mentioned in passing:
      SUPERNOVAs--stars that explode.
      NUTRINO STARS--polarized radio-active
                     clinkers resulting from
                     going supernova.
      PULSARs--detectable from Earth in x-ray form.
               (My old watch was one of these--
                actually I bought it on the streets
                of new York for $15.00 because
                they had misspelled PULSAR.
                Yeah, I have a BULSAR watch.)
Now, when the big shot from Berkley was asked
     how big is the Universe, his reply was
      "THIS BIG".  This does not help an
       Astronomy student.  We want Numbers.


Email: paulborkowski@galaxy5.com