There is nothing like a view of the universe to make you realize just how small and insignificant you are. Even just a tiny portion of the universe is more than we can comprehend. Distances are so vast that the numbers are almost meaningless to us. The number of stars and planets boggles the imagination.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of a galactic group; there are three major galaxies in this group. Only 2.5 million light years away from Earth, the largest is Andromeda,which contains a trillion stars in a spiral approximately 200,000 light years from end to end. Next in size is the Milky Way, about half the size of Andromeda and 600 billion stars. Third largest is the Triangulum Galaxy, less than half the size of the Milky Way with about 40 billion stars. Everything else in this group orbits around these galaxies. Smaller galaxies in our local group are a mere 160,000 light years away.
Those are the galaxies closest to us. And what about those farthest away...
Those are the galaxies closest to us. And what about those farthest away...
And yet, David writes in Psalms 8
Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
