The Hidden Lives of Galaxies - How Big is the Universe?
Activity #1
How Big is the Universe?
The Milky Way has a radius of approximately 50,000 light years. The visible universe has a size of approximately 15 billion light years. If the Milky Way is represented by an 8 centimeter wide coffee cup, how big would the rest of the universe be in kilometers?
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The Milky Way has a radius of about 50,000 light years. What is the total size of the Milky Way Galaxy?________ |
The visible universe has a radius of approximately 15 billion light years. |
So if an 8 cm wide coffee cup represents the Milky Way, the visible universe would be a sphere approximately ________km in radius. |
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What other objects can you use to compare the size of the universe with the size of the Milky Way galaxy?
