Apathy Curve: Long Way

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Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Long Way

Check out this ultra high-resolution zoomable composite photograph of the Andromeda galaxy. How high is the resolution? If you zoom all the way in, you can see individual stars in Andromeda. No, not the ones in the foreground; those are in our galaxy. I mean zoom ALL the way in and give it a few seconds to refresh.

If you don't think that's astounding, here are the numbers: the Andromeda galaxy (NGC 224) is roughly 2.5 million light-years away. A light year is six trillion miles. I won't write out all the zeros of that product, as I'd be here all day. The camera was able to resolve individual stars at that distance. The distance-to-size ratio is so great, I can't make an Earth-bound analogy without going subatomic, at which point the analogy would lose its meaning.

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