One of the great things about surfing is that every now and then, we get a glimpse of how small we are. The ocean, compared to a human, is a very large place. And for some reason, that little glimpse feels good. For me, it’s just something that reminds me that I really don’t matter all that much, at least on a global scale. I move through my days pretending that things are important, stressing about things that aren’t worth stressing over, and just that small feeling is comforting–even though it’s a little depressing.
But the ocean, in all its mind-boggling big-ness, is just a drop in the universe. Not even a drop. In fact, it’s not even a drop in our observable universe. The sheer scale of the universe isn’t comprehendible. It’s as though our brains aren’t wired to fully grasp the idea of infinity.
The video above is made from the largest photo ever taken, and it will make you feel tiny. Infestisimally tiny. It’s an image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of our closest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. 1.5 billion (also a number that is so large it’s nearly impossible to wrap your head around) pixels. The entire image is comprised of 411 Hubble photos, and shows over 100 million stars, traveling nearly 50,000 light years.
And if that didn’t make you feel small enough, marinate on this for a second: Andromeda is one of an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the visible universe–which means that beyond our ability to see lies more, and further on that lies more, and more, and more… forever. 100 billion galaxies means that every single human on earth right now could have around ten galaxies, all to themselves. And this image only shows the brightest stars in Andromeda. Estimates say that the galaxy contains somewhere in the neighborhood of a trillion stars.
So next time you look up at the night sky, try and feel tiny. Next time you’re in the ocean, try and imagine just how inconsequential you really are. If you can make the size you are in your head shrink to the size you REALLY are, your problems might shrink with it… or it’ll just make you go crazy.
