have you seen those videos that show the
scale of our universe they're pretty
neat because they demonstrate just how
much larger other stars in our galaxy
are then our own Sun however my problem
with these videos is that we quickly
lose context of scale because as each
new star is introduced they appear
visually the same as the one before it
so we're just kind of left thinking yeah
I guess we're pretty tiny in the scale
of the universe but I want to know just
how tiny we are so instead of using a
scale that changes in this video it's
gonna be locked and just like you can
have miniature scaled models our scale
is 1 to 190 million that shrinks the
universe down to a point where the earth
is the size of a tennis ball and that
makes the moon the size of a Nerf ball
now ask yourself this question how far
away would they be from each other
elbows bent just a little bit here right
here I'll tightly lock it because it
took the astronauts three days
that'll do they're here actually our
little moon would be all the way over
here seven feet away the real moon sits
250,000 miles from the earth at its
furthest point in orbit and here's a fun
fact if you were to line up each planet
in the solar system right next to each
other they could actually fit between
the earth in the moon next earth we
would put Mercury Venus and Mars and
then expand outwards to Jupiter followed
by Saturn and then Uranus and Neptune
and you can even throw a little Pluto in
here for good measure this is just crazy
that they actually fit there and if you
want to read more about this crazy
cosmic coincidence I've linked a really
interesting article by astronomer Hill
plait as you can see even at the scale
Jupiter is pretty big you could fit
1,300 Earth's within the volume of
Jupiter but that is nothing compared to
the Sun and for that we have to go
outside now at this scale the Sun would
be half a mile away so for simplicity
sake I'm just gonna put the Sun right
here Oh God so bright okay let's not
actually simulate the brightness - let's
bring that down okay that's better at
this scale the Sun would be 24 feet wide
which is over half the width of this
whole street in fact it's so big the Sun
could fit 1.3 million
Earth's inside of it that's pretty crazy
now our Sun is actually larger than most
stars as a yellow dwarf it's bigger than
80% of the stars in the entire universe
most stars are red dwarfs and they're
about half the size of our Sun but even
if the Sun is above average size it's
certainly not the biggest let's look at
Sirius
no not Sirius Black that's serious it is
the brightest star in the night sky
because it is only eight and a half
light-years away combined with the fact
that it is 20 times brighter than our
Sun you can even see Sirius in most
light polluted cities now a quick side
note about these comparisons I'm simply
focusing on the diameters of each of
these stars and that doesn't necessarily
correlate to how much mass the star has
or how bright they appear because some
of these stars have ballooned to such a
huge volume that they appear absolutely
massive like Arcturus Arcturus is 26
times larger than our Sun yet it isn't
even twice as heavy at our tennis ball
scale it is 610 feet wide which is about
the length of two football fields what
is interesting about Arcturus is that it
is flying in a different direction from
all the other stars in our galaxy and
therefore it is hypothesized that it was
actually formed in another galaxy that
at some point in the last several
billion years was eaten up by our own
Milky Way zooming out we get Rigel which
would be so large it'd be taller than
New York City's Freedom Tower at 1872
feet tall that's pretty big but even
though it's so large it's actually a
tiny little baby star and I actually
mean that literally it's only eight
million years old compared to our Sun
which is four-and-a-half billion years
old that is the difference between a 100
year old person in a two month old baby
except this baby is destined to explode
in a supernova
not all stars go supernova though our
own Sun for instance is going to
continue expanding until it's over a
mile wide at our scale over the course
of the next five billion years it will
turn into a red giant 256 times bigger
than it is right now hey hey
no need to worry though because only in
about 1 billion years are we gonna lose
all of our oceans thanks to the fact
that they're going to boil away but
here's a star that even puts that to
shame
[Music]
this star boasts a waistline that is
over a billion miles wide your mama
ain't got nothing on this with earth as
a tennis ball Betelgeuse which stretch
over five miles end-to-end it would be
ten times taller than the tallest
building in the world the Burj Khalifa
in Dubai
it is however considered to be really
close to the end of its life and is very
likely to go supernova within a million
years and when it does the explosion
will be so bright it'll outshine the
full moon and may last as long as a
month but Betelgeuse is not the largest
star that we found that honor lies with
us scooti what kind of a name is UI
scooty astronomers think this might even
be the largest star in our galaxy and
it's certainly the largest one we've
ever found
if it were to replace our Sun the
surface would reach the orbit of Saturn
it would dwarf Manhattan at a staggering
8 miles wide eight miles Central Park is
only two and a half miles long so this
is over three times longer than that to
put that into perspective that is higher
than the cruising out suit of all
airlines these stars are the size of
cities and here we are living on a
tennis ball do you feel small yet I do
[Music]
thank you so much for watching this
video this is a project I've been
wanting to work on for quite some time
so I really hope that you've walked away
with a better appreciation for the scale
of our universe now time for a word from
our sponsors us that's right we've been
working on some really cool designs such
as this one that you can find in our
merchandise store link in the
description we also have shirts like
this it glows in the dark
that's pretty crazy and for the first
time in years we've brought back the
original snapback hat so if you missed
out on that the first time we've got you
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god of jenk shirt Dobby rendered in the
flesh for the first time only a few days
left for this one though so act fast and
with your support we're able to make
videos like this one so I really want to
make more so I hope you keep supporting
us thank you so much and I'll see you in
the next one