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4 - Trying to Grasp Size

from Part II - The Universe We Live In

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2023

Raymond Hickey
Raymond Hickey
Affiliation:
University of Limerick
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Summary

Learning about the universe can be life changing. When you realise that our galaxy is at least 100,000 light years in diameter, that it contains several hundred billion stars, most with planets, and when you learn that the observable universe may contain anything up to one to two trillion1 such galaxies you cannot pretend that you do not know this and retreat to some earlier period of knowledge to recover a state of innocence when you thought Earth was all that mattered. True, it is where our lives are based, but there are no words to describe how utterly insignificant the Earth is to the universe which contains it.

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Chapter
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Life and Language Beyond Earth , pp. 47 - 57
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Trying to Grasp Size
  • Raymond Hickey, University of Limerick
  • Book: Life and Language Beyond Earth
  • Online publication: 16 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009229272.005
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  • Trying to Grasp Size
  • Raymond Hickey, University of Limerick
  • Book: Life and Language Beyond Earth
  • Online publication: 16 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009229272.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Trying to Grasp Size
  • Raymond Hickey, University of Limerick
  • Book: Life and Language Beyond Earth
  • Online publication: 16 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009229272.005
Available formats
×