Something About Looking at the Stars.

Feeling sorry for myself as usual generated this xkcd-like rant.

I’d like to propose a Venn diagram on a cosmic scale.

For our first element (Element A) we’re going to use the Sun. You see it every day and it’s easy to ignore how incredibly large it is – from our perspective it’s about the size of a quarter. Because we see it daily, it’s pretty easy to take for granted

But here’s an interesting factoid about the Sun: It’s so large that over a million Earths can fit into it. Think about that for a second. Planet Earth, whose curvature you can only see when get to a high enough altitude, would fit a million times over into the shell of the Sun – with enough room to rattle around in.

So: Element A is the exact size of the Sun. It’s labeled “People I Find Attractive.”

But for this Venn diagram to be complete, we need a second element.

I’d like to introduce you to VY Canis Majoris: the largest stellar object currently known to man. It’s classified as a red hypergiant and is so large that if placed in the center of our planetary system, it would extend past Jupiter.

The reason why the Sun looks so small in our sky is because it is on average 92 million miles away from us. The diameter of VY Canis Majoris is over six and a half times that distance.

So, Element B is the size of VY Canis Majoris – which we’ll label “People Who Find Me Attractive.”

Now our elements are in place, we have to assess their intersection. Since I’m already using stars for their scale, I might as use their placement as well for this example.

VY Canis Majoris is approximately 6900 light years from the Sun.

You figure the rest out.