look at this link

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/

go from 10 million light years from the milkyway galaxy down to the sub atomic level.

put it onto manual mode and use the arrows to change the zoom level

We are such a small world.

Reminds me of the Total Perspective Vortex.

I remember seeing this video in Biology. It's rather old...like 70s-ish.

no, this is something else.

...I watched it. It's the same exact thing.

Because you know what he watched?

The one I saw in year 7 physics zoomed in on the back of some dudes hand. Otherwise it was much the same.

Heh, yah, I've seen that one.

Anyways, it kind of makes you wonder how we know what the Milky Way looks like from the outside... we're kind of stuck without that perspective for the time being.

Isn't that what they used on Zaphod in Hitchhikers?

Yep.

A really, really big mirror.

In space.

Freaking sweet, now I know how Zaphod did feel.;)

Maybe they based it off of looking at other galaxies?

Or they got it from one of the Voyager probes?

The Total Perspective Vortex, if I recall, didn't just show you where you were in the Galaxy, it showed you where you were in the UNIVERSE. I think it also included a big arrow and 'You are here' somewhere along the line, but I might be wrong about that. Zaphod was also the only person to ever walk out of the Total Perspective Vortex unaffected. I forget why now... Something to do with his personality I think.

Time to reread everything and listen to the radio productions again.

Voyager I and II are offically way, WAY out of recieving range now. In fact, I think their antennas were pointed away from the Earth. I don't think they could even take pictures that good.

Zaphod was put in an artificial Universe by Zarniwoop. Or Zarniwoop's assistant Rasta (name?) I don't remember exactly. In this artificial Universe, Zaphod was the most important person in it. Therefore, the Total Perspective Vortex couldn't do anything to him. Then he ate the fairy cake.

Let's not forget that even though we are so small compared to 10 million light years from the galaxy, we are immeasurably small when parallel universes are taken into acount... Dude...

ten million light years out is hardly anything compaired to the galaxies that the hubble has seen that are over 15 billion light years out.

Hardly likely, since the universe itself is only about 13 or 14 billion years old. But you do have a point. They could have zoomed out at least three more orders of magnitude.

As for the Voyager thing, other than being out of recieving range, it is going to take them thousands of years just to travel one light-year. In fact, they currently aren't too far past Pluto (relatively speaking).

What we need are space probes that go a considerable fraction of the speed of light. I see no reason why we couldn't build a small probe and accelerate it to, say, 10% of the speed of light. It would take a lot of money, sure... the real problem is decelerating it once it reaches its destination (wherever that may be).

If you look really really closely, you can see Los Angeles from the second zoomed view.

...

what?

That's really cool.

Kinda makes you feel... insignificant.

I thought I recognized all the lights and hookers.

Yes. I guess they were flashing you for attention!

*rimshot*

How do you know?

This is according to scientific theory, which many people believe to be true.

...maybe that'll defuse the situation.

plus he was there. a witness.

I thought our galaxy was a bar spiral, not a spiral.

Yeah, we are nowhere near being able to actually view our galaxy from anywhere other than our own perspective. The assumption that it's not a particularly special one, along with the doppler shifts of stars at various distances from us give us a model that works pretty well. Or something. It's been a while since I did a galaxies course, and it's 2am.