20/04/2026
So you think you have a grasp of size when it comes to outer space- this little note may change that. Lets focus on something closer to us.. Our solar system. Yes we on Earth travel about 583 million miles a year going around our sun however, there is a lot more to our solar system. The Oort Cloud- this is a GIANT spherical SHELL surrounding our solar system. In it are hundreds of billions if not trillions of icy bodies including comets.... After the planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago left over material including planetesimals where pushed away from the sun. How did that happen? Planets were formed as material was combined thru collisions traveling around the sun clearing much of the debris. Beyond Mars the gas giants who formed closer to the sun and moved away from it drug much of the debris from the inner solar system out. As the gas planets grew their gravitational influence increased which sped up the debris and started flinging it out into space. A long way from the sun that debris slowed and stopped and is kept in place by our lovely star as well as the tidal gravitational force of our galaxy. WHA LA- The Oort Cloud was born. So how far away is the cloud? Well we are about 93 million miles away from our star or one astronomical unit. The Oort Cloud is between 5 and 100,000 Astronomical Units away from the sun. Multiply 5 au's x 93,000,000 miles and that is the closest point in the cloud to our star. Now multiply 100,000 au's x 93,000,000 miles and thats as far as it reaches out into the Galaxy. Once out of the Oort Cloud Sphere- you now get to say you have achieved intra-galactic travel. Of course you have well over another 95,000 light years to travel to get to the other side of our Galaxy. Once there you can than start traveling Inter-Galactically and head to our closest neighbor- The Andromeda Galaxy- thats a whopping 2.5 million Light Years Away. So I have no ability to understand the distance nor time needed to travel to the Hercules Cluster of Galaxies about 505,000,000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY and thats considered our local Universe !!! Hope that gives you some insight into how big things are beyond our solar system. Here is my painting- Edge of the Universe. The universes edge is estimated to be about 43 billion light years away. However, we will never get there as the expansion of the universe seems to be growing faster than the speed of light!!!!
