Universe

Our Place in The Universe

In a Froth of Galaxies
On the Outskirts of a Supercluster
In the Local Group
Embedded in the Milky Way's Disk
On the Inner Edge of the Local Arm
On the 3rd Planet from the Sun

Percentage Contribution
to Solar System Mass
Sun 99.900%
Jupiter 0.099%
All the rest 0.001%

Apart from the Sun, there is very little matter in the Solar system. One of those specks, the pale blue world three out from the Sun, a rocky planet with four fifths of its surface covered by ocean, is home to six billion people, our place, Earth.

We've just begun to look. So far, we have yet to find another place like it.


Distance across image: 2 light hours

The illustration is from a sequence by Brad Greenwood on the poster: Galaxies, (no publisher or date).