Amber Reed

What is our place in the universe?
We as earth have a cosmic address within the solar system, which is contains the Sun and  all objects that orbit it.  Moons and other planets , asteroids and comets are what orbit the Sun.

How did we come to be?
The birth of the Universe was 13,700,000,000 years ago, it was a hot and dense Big Bang began which led to this expansion. Our universe continues to expand,smaller scales of gravity pulls matter together to make galaxies. These galaxies can be referred to as cosmic recycling plants. Earlier the universe contained two chemicals, which were hydrogen and helium.  Now about 2 percent of  the original hydrogen and helium converted into heavier elements. 

How can we know what the universe was like in the past?
It is possible now to see the past of the universe by studying light from distant stars and galaxies. This is due to light and the speed in which it travels.The speed of light is approximately 300,000 kilometers per second, which can be compared traveling around the entire Earth eight times in about a second.  The fact it takes time for light to travel, scientists have found out the farther away we look into he distance, the further you can look into the past. 

Can we see the entire universe?
No, you can see the entire universe because there may be things that are farther away that the light had not touched.

How big is Earth compared to our solar system?
On a scale in which the Sun is the size of a grapefruit, Earth is the size of a ball point pen tip. Which would orbit the Sun at a distance of 15 meters.

How far away are the stars?
Since a light year is about 10 trillion kilometers, which is converted into 1000 kilometers, one to 10 billion scale.  The nearest  star system to us is a three star system called alpha centauri , and that is about 4.4 light years way.  That can be further broken down to 4400 kilometers o the one to 10 billion scale, which is the distance of The United States across. 

How big is the Milky Way Galaxy?
The Milk Way one of the 100 billion galaxies out there. It would take more than approximately  3000 years to count the stars in the milk way, at a rate of one per per second. The Milky Way way galaxy is about 100,000 light years across in length.

How big is the universe?
-The universe has many stars as grains of (dry)sand on all Earth's beaches. There about 100 billion galaxies, and counting. If measured the universe is about 14 billion light years in radius.

How do our lifetimes compare to the age of the universe?
Lifetimes can be compared to the age of earth by the cosmic Calendar;. This is a  scale on which we have compressed the history of th universe in a single year.

How is Earth moving in our solar system?
Earth is moving in several ways, and at different speeds. Earth rotates on its axis every single day, and the farther south you travel, the bigger distance you rotate.  This is due to the fact Earth is a sphere.