Andromeda

Have you ever seen a galaxy?

Last year I was able to go to someone's house for a stargazing night. The family there owned a large telescope and lived out in the middle of nowhere, so there was little to no light pollution, and the sky was clear. We got to see many amazing things, among which was the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way: Andromeda. I had never seen a galaxy before, so it was truly amazing.

Andromeda (also known as M31 or NGC224) can be seen in the constellation Andromeda, and is visible to the naked eye on moonless nights even with moderate light pollution. However, only the center of it is visible with the naked eye; a telescope is required to view the arms as well.* It contains approximately 1 TRILLION stars, whereas our galaxy contains 200-400 billion. Andromeda is over 220,000 light-years in diameter** (one light-year is equal to about 10 trillion kilometers, or 6 trillion miles). It's practically impossible to fully comprehend the magnitude of this amazing galaxy, and yet it is merely one small speck in a vast universe.

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"

Psalm 8:3-4 

* Wikipedia's Andromeda Article 
** California Institute Of Technology's Andromeda Article 

God is so awesome! A lot of times I'll say that and not even think about it, but lately I've been realizing more and more how awesome he really is. As those of you who read my profile know, I absolutely love astronomy! The more I learn about the universe, the more awed I am at the power of God. David wasn't kidding when he said "The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands."

These are some pretty awesome videos. However, I would highly recommend going to the Creation Museum to see it in person there (it's so much better, and this was my favorite part of the museum).

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I love how little we know about the universe. It's merely a glimpse of the awesome power of God.

Have you ever seen the constellation Orion? It's pretty cool. On one of the arms of Orion is a huge star called Betelgeuse. It's a supergiant, over 1,000 times bigger than our sun*. 

So if the earth is 1,000,000 times smaller than the sun, and the sun is 1,000 times smaller than Betelgeuse, how many earths could fit inside Betelgeuse?

This is one of my favorite stars, mostly because of how hard it is to even try to comprehend how huge it is. 

At first, I thought that Betelgeuse was probably the biggest star that humans knew of, but was soon surprised to find that there are stars much bigger than Betelgeuse!

As far as I know, Canis Majoris is the biggest star we know of in our galaxy.

Size Comparison
Video of Size Comparison

Isn't it amazing how small we are in comparison to everything else out there? Think about it: God made all that. It's all so much bigger than we are, and yet HE wants to have a personal relationship with us! He wants to be our best friend. It's awesome!

*According to a NASA article.