Unimaginable Vastness and Remarkable Order

Last updated on: January 18, 2018 at 10:40 am by Dan Peterson

Unimaginable Vastness and Remarkable Order 2018-01-18T10:40:36-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest galactic neighbor
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Another attempt to help us imagine the sheer unimaginably astounding size of the cosmos, from Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, in his book How It Began: A Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Universe (New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2012), 98:

We live in a city of light. To grasp the vastness, we need a scale model. We can get there in two steps. In the first step, we’ll shrink objects and space by a factor of 10 million. The Earth is an apricot, and the Moon a pea at arm’s length. This cozy arrangement is the full extent of human voyaging. On this scale, the Sun is a 10-foot globe 100 yards away, while the nearest star is 30,000 miles away. With this scale model, most stars are still unimaginably far, so we shrink space again, this time by a factor of 100 million. Stars are now the size of atoms, and a solar system is contained within a region of space the size of a small grain of sand. The typical distance between stars is 30 feet and the Milky Way galaxy is the size of the continental United States. This city of light holds many billions of stars. A legend on this map would read 1:1015, or 1 inch equals 1 light-month.

And he’s only talking about our own galaxy here. There are at least one hundred billion — that’s 100,000,000,000 — galaxies in the observable universe. To say nothing of regions that we cannot observe.

***

My Deseret News column for the week has now appeared:

“Somewhere, William Paley is smiling”

***

In his De incarnatione, the famous fourth-century theologian and bishop of Alexandria St. Athanasius, explained that humanity had been created by God so that, “by looking into the heights of heaven, and perceiving the harmony of creation, they might know its ruler, the Word of the Father, who, by his own providence over all things, makes the Father known to all.”

“God,” wrote the distinguished Canadian Jesuit philosopher Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984), “is the unrestricted act of understanding, the eternal rapture glimpsed in every Archimedean cry of Eureka.” (Bernard Lonergan, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, 2d ed. [New York: Philosophical Library, 1958), 684.

***

Meanwhile, in science news:

“Oddly behaving star reveals a black hole hiding in a globular cluster, a first: By the way, it’s also the first stellar-mass black hole ever found based on its gravitational pull.”

Incidentally, it’s instructive that this newly-found black hole was not located by direct observation, but, rather, by deduction or inference from its effects on other objects.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 17, 2018

Some resources for Latter-day Saints

Next Post

January 18, 2018 Some more on "jihad"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the Hebrew word 'Shekinah' mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

God’s Glory Everlasting Light Divine Presence Holy Fire