A Humbling Perspective

Stars and Planets Scale Comparison
“Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise.”
This scale comparison shows “the true place” of Earth and our Sun among the various giants of the universe. It is simultaneously sobering and mind-boggling experience.
First series of images opens with the Death Star compared to Mimas, one of Saturn’s moons. Note the similarities between the two










Earth is small enough to be swallowed by an average sunspot:
(picture credt)

Second series of images (from this site) shows the similar progression, now in 3-D:





“The Universe is a big place populated by stars and thoroughly confused humans.”
“We simply do not understand our place in the universe
and have not the courage to admit it”
– Barry Lopez (American writer, b.1945)
“Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery – the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets – is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together.”
– Alan Watts
“The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination.
But the combination is locked up in the safe.”
– Peter De Vries
“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.”
– C.S. Lewis
“The reduction of the universe to a single being, the expansion of a single being even to God, this is love.”
– Victor Hugo
“The universe is full of magical things,
patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”
– Eden Phillpotts