23. |
However large the object is, the next jump reduces it to one tenth its size. So
here we find our galaxy again, but as an ellipse (1) barely 8 millimeters in
length, and inside the small square. The Great Magellanic Cloud (2) is again
partly visible, but it lies far behind it. The Small Magellanic Cloud (3) can now
be seen, and also two more of the galaxies which are relatively near our Milky
Way. They are the Sculptor (4) and the Fornax (5) systems. No other galaxies
are drawn, although many further away would be visible, for again we want to
concentrate attention on "our own world" and its "nearest neighbors". We must
think of our galaxy whirling around, Clockwise, only once in 200 million years.
And yet this movement gives to our solar system, because it is so close to the
edge of the disk, the terrific speed of 216 kilometers per second!
1 cm. in picture = 1023 cm. = about 100,000 light-years. | Scale = 1:1023 |
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