Thanks Frank.
I did some math, prompted by a curious person.
That big white star below the galaxy is HIP47999, a 6.95 magnitude star in our Milky Way. It is only 440.75 light years away. To get a handle on that, our nearest star, Alpha Centauri, near the Southern Cross, is 5 light years away.
To further understand that, light travels about 300,000 Kilometres per second.
300,000 times 60 seconds in a minute, times 60 minutes in an hour, times 24 hours in a day, times 365 days in a year, times five years, equals 47304000000000 kilometers.
Now do the math for 55 million years.
Not sure on the size of that particular star, but the colour indicates it is pretty hot.
Makes your head spin doesn't it? Now ask yourself, what do we know but a mere snapshot of the universe?
|