Perspective

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When life gets crazy, for me that's at least once a day, I have to readjust my perspective. I remind myself that humanity exists in this one tiny corner of the universe. The odds against our existence are so great it's a marvel we are here. There is so much for humanity to discover, so much we still don't understand. But we burn to discover what we can, learn what we can. The petty squabbles of earth seem like just that petty squabbles. Considering the vastness of space helps me focus on the things that are of true importance. Kindness, humility, grace, the things that leave marks on peoples hearts that give them strength.
The Milky Way Galaxy is our home galaxy in the universe. It is a fairly typical barred spiral with four major arms in its disk, at least one spur, and a newly discovered outer arm. The galactic centre, which is located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, contains at least one supermassive black hole (called Sagittarius A*), and is crossed by a bar. The Milky Way began forming around 12 billion years ago and is part of a group of about 50 galaxies called the Local Group. The Andromeda Galaxy is part of this group as are numerous smaller galaxies, including the Magellanic Clouds. The Local Group itself is part of a larger gathering of galaxies called the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies.




A Map of the Milky Way


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