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Comment by dimgl | Hacker News Reader

Every couple of years I'm reminded of the scale of the universe and I'm just as shocked every time.

Especially on realization that this 100k stars is only 0.0001% of the stars in our galaxy. It would take one million of these visualizations to represent the Milky Way.

I was surprised to learn recently that we can only see 5,000 stars from Earth with the naked eye.

Depends on your definition of "star." You can see the Andromeda galaxy with your naked eye (as well as the galactic center.)

True, but IIUC, that's the only object you can see in the sky that is not a part of our galaxy.

The Magellanic clouds are also visible to the naked eye.

But you don’t see individual stars. When I have been out in the middle of nowhere and looked at the Andromeda galaxy, it just looks like a smudge. You need a telescope to really realize it is made up of many individual stars.

Is that even in the best conditions i.e. a dark site?

Yes

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/how-many-stars-n...

Super cool! Thank you for sharing.

And the Milky Way galaxy is one of trillions.

And that is only the observable universe

This is a great way to spend 10mins and have your mind blown at the same time

https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....

This here too:

https://youtu.be/zR3Igc3Rhfg

I found this video pretty mind-blowing in presenting the scale of the universe, especially through time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA

"Universe Size Comparison 3D": https://youtu.be/i93Z7zljQ7I

You're only reminded of the scale the universe is not

Quite amazing really.

> Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the day and night there are signs for people of reason.

https://quran.com/3/190

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