- Science
- Curiously Krulwich
Every Solar System Image You’ve Ever Seen is Wrong. Till Now.
So which one are we (we human beings, I mean)?
Infinitesimal
String scale
Nanoscale
Subatomic scale
Atomic
Molecular
Mitochondrial
Cellular
Microscopic
Minuscule
Tiny
Lilliputian
Small
Medium
Bulky
Large
Immense
Massive
Giant
Mammoth
Colossal
Leviathan
Vast
Galactic
Cosmic
Universal
Well, it depends on who’s asking. To a virus, we’re colossal, even vast. To a giraffe, we’re small. If it’s me asking, a virus looks microscopic (minuscule?), while the solar system—ah, the solar system—has gotta be in the colossal-to-vast range, but I really have no idea. I can look up at what might be Mars (the rosy-looking one) in the night sky, but I haven’t the imagination, the metaphor, the math to make sense of that distance. All I know