A side note of sorts, but the figures reminded me of a song...
Whenever life get you down, Mrs. Brown And things seem hard or tough And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft And you feel that you've had quite enu-hu-hu-huuuuff
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving And revolving at 900 miles an hour That's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned A sun that is the source of all our power The sun and you and me, and all the stars that we can see Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way
Our galaxy itself contains 100 billion stars It's 100,000 light-years side-to-side It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light-years thick But out by us it's just 3000 light-years wide We're 30,000 light-years from galactic central point We go round every 200 million years And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions In this amazing and expanding universe
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions it can whiz As fast as it can go, at the speed of light you know Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure How amazingly unlikely is your birth And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space Because there's bugger all down here on Earth
Whenever life get you down, Mrs. Brown
And things seem hard or tough
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you've had quite enu-hu-hu-huuuuff
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour
That's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned
A sun that is the source of all our power
The sun and you and me, and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way
Our galaxy itself contains 100 billion stars
It's 100,000 light-years side-to-side
It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light-years thick
But out by us it's just 3000 light-years wide
We're 30,000 light-years from galactic central point
We go round every 200 million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
Because there's bugger all down here on Earth
It really does put things into perspective.
Reply
Leave a comment