“Powers of Ten” www.rbkor.net www.youtube.com Although our Universe is very, very big, the stuff of which it is made is very, very small. www.rbkor.net www.youtube.com

“Powers of 10” The biggest: 1 × 1023 ...? The smallest: 1 × 10-15 ...? 100,000.000,000,000,000,000,000 meters The largest is far away; the smallest is within us. The smallest: 1 × 10-15 ...? 0.0000000000000001 of a meter

Within a vast Universe exists a blue marble of light, a “blue dot”, which we call Earth. Earth floating in a ray of sunshine a picture by Pioneer spacecraft requested by the late Carl Sagan

100 = 1 meter (m) 1012 = 1,000,000,000,000 10-3 1 millimeter (mm) = 3.3 feet (ft) Our world at arm’s length 1012 = 1,000,000,000,000 1 light-year = 9.46 × 1012 km = 1 ly or = 6 trillion miles 10-3 1 millimeter (mm) ~ 10 sheets of copier paper 1023 light years: is the boundary of today’s known uni-verse… and, perhaps, tomorrow’s frontiere. 10-6 1 micrometer (µm) typical bacteria ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To observe the smallest objects in Nature, huge ma-chines whirl atomic particles around at near the speed of light in a 27-kilometer cir-cular tube at CERN in Switzerland. 10-9 1 nanometer (nm) water molecule 10-12 1 picometer (pm) atoms 10-15 1 femtometer (fm) 1.7 femtometer proton in an atomic nucleus CERN is the birthplace in 1989 of the World Wide Web, colloquially known as the Web.

100 = 1 1 meter = 3.28 feet

101 = 10 The wingspan of an Air Bus A380 is 80 meters (8 × 10 m) or 263 ft. Air Bus A380 Super Jumbo

102 = 100 The Empire State Build-ing in New York City stands 370 m or 3.7 × 102 m. 103 = 1,000 The Russky Bridge in Vladivostok, Russia has a span of 1,100 m or 1.1 × 103 m.

104 = 10,000 The Earth is 12,742 km in diameter or 104 = 10,000 The Earth is 12,742 km in diameter or 1.2742 × 104 km (~ 8,000 miles).

105 kilometers = 100,000 km Our Moon is ~3.8 × 108 meters or 3.8 × 105 kilometers (~ 239,000 miles) from Earth. The distance from the Earth to the Moon can also be described as being 1.1 light-seconds.

106 = 1,000.000 The Earth is 150,000.000 km or 1.5 × 109 m from the Sun 93,000,000 miles = 8 light-minutes Our Sun in ultraviolet Our Sun in infra-red

109 = 1,000,000,000 = 1 billion In this photograph, Earth is 1.44 × 109 kilometers, or ~900 million miles, from Saturn (NASA Cassini: 19 July 2013).

1012 = 1,000,000,000,000 1 light year = 9.46 × 1012 km = 300,000 meters per second (the speed of light) × 3,600 seconds in 1 hour × 24 hours in 1 day × 365 days in 1 year = 1 light-year Our closest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, is a mere 4.22 ly distant from Earth. Note the reddish color, which indicates a cool star that is very slowly dying.

1015 = 1,000,000,000,000,000 Polaris (North Star) is 4.11 × 1015 km or ~ 434 light-years from Earth The North Star, or Pole Star, has been used for millennia to navigate across land and sea.

1017 Milky Way Galaxy 1018 2.55 × 1017 km = 1 × 1018 km = ~27,000 ly 1017  2.55 × 1017 km = ~27,000 ly Distance from Earth to center of Milky Way Galaxy 1018 1 × 1018 km = ~ 110,000 ly Diameter of

Secrets of space have opened new technologies that can lead to unlimited, clean energy and bountiful natural resources for the ever-adaptive human species. Ralph Baldasare PS: the last page of this presentation shows a list of links to other versions of the “Power of Ten”; enjoy.

How big is the Universe? At the present time, we can see objects that are 13- to 14-billion light years from Earth, but we do not know if this is the edge of the Universe.

Nearly every smudge of light in this Hubble photo is a galaxy Nearly every smudge of light in this Hubble photo is a galaxy. Choose your galaxy and go in peace.

Variations of “Powers of Ten” Although the IBM version of the “Powers of 10” movie debuted in 1977, an early version was produced in the late 1960s from photographs available from NASA. The 1977 “Power of 10” can be viewed at Powers of 10 -film \ Interactive: The Universe-Solved! Version of "The Powers of 10" A more theatrical rendition of the Power of 10 concept can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRjGarICal4 Zoom-in on some beautiful views of galaxies and nebula at www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WMTfT5GC2oQ An inspirational perspective can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-cpYhN2YOU Yet another version of “The Powers of Ten” by RBKOR at www.rbkor.net ==================================================