

Scale of Universe - sun123
http://scaleofuniverse.com/

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cryptoz
"We're probably not in the center of the universe"

The way I understood things, there is no center of the universe. Or
equivalently, all points in the universe have a view such that it appears that
you are in the center of the universe. The universe is spacetime itself, and
the idea of a center requires an idea of space outside of spacetime, no?

~~~
jessriedel
Nobody knows what the topology of the universe is, nor, contrary to this
animation, does anyone have a reliable estimate for the size of the universe
(as opposed to just the observable universe). It might be infinite, or it
might be just slightly larger than the observable universe.

But yes, all current models of the universe are homogeneous; no point is more
central than any other point. It doesn't have to be this way, but it's the
simplest assumption.

~~~
victork2
"Yes and no". The universe is not homogeneous on a large scale, there are
filaments of galaxies and everything but yes the idea of the center of the
universe does not correspond to anything. The Big Bang from current models
happened everywhere and the expansions comes from the fact that the very
"fabric" of the universe expands.

But there are some awesome implications of an infinite universe, take a look
here if you are interested:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse#Level_I:_Beyond_our_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse#Level_I:_Beyond_our_cosmological_horizon)

~~~
jessriedel
In the sense of matter distribution, the universe isn't homogeneous on small
scales either. But that's not what is meant in the context of a cosmological
model. The global spacetime is modeled with a FLRW metric, whose key property
is homogeneity and isotropy.

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Kiro
Scale of Universe Enhanced is the sequel and even better:
[http://images.4channel.org/f/src/589217_scale_of_universe_en...](http://images.4channel.org/f/src/589217_scale_of_universe_enhanced.swf)

~~~
JonnieCache
Yes, I was surprised to see the old one posted here when this new fancy
version has recently been made. It has at least twice as many things, and lots
of educational text when you click them (although I think he got bored writing
them after a point.) The science is more on point than the old one too.

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CWIZO
Posted here many many times already:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1835460>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1953919>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1261816>

~~~
rsanchez1
It happens with many stories. I wish those who submit articles would take the
time to check their article/page hasn't been submitted yet.

~~~
chunkyslink
What is the best way to do this ?

~~~
andreif
try
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/njdndkhkelkeepcnmo...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/njdndkhkelkeepcnmookckfhleebcokl)

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petercooper
I'd love to see a case study or profile of the creation of this. Over the last
10 years and in multiple communities, I've seen the underlying Flash animation
to this appear and do well every single time. It must be one of the most seen
Flash animations ever, yet it continues to do well every time despite being
very simply produced.

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roopeshv
On topic of scales. [http://blog.visual.ly/12-visualizations-that-will-change-
the...](http://blog.visual.ly/12-visualizations-that-will-change-the-way-you-
view-scale-in-your-world/)

~~~
triples
It's 4:15am here, and I am manically laughing in my bedroom while watching
these. Thanks!

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mark_story
Sadly their MySQL server went down, and no one took the time to configure PHP
correctly :(

> Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Lost connection to MySQL
> server at 'reading initial communication packet', system error: 111 in
> /home/primax/public_html/dbcon.php on line 14 Could not connect database

~~~
encoderer
Scale of universe meets scalability of MySQL.

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randomtyler
Main link is broken right now. Alt link that I think is the same thing (based
on comments) <http://www.scaleoftheuniverse.com/>

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smackay
This really needs forward and reverse play buttons to allow you just sit and
try and comprehend what is zooming before your eyes.

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zanek
Wow, I saw this over 2 years ago. Whoever made this site took the original SWF
and put it on this domain behind ads to make money.

Anyway, its still very cool at any rate. I wish someone created a CGI version
of this thats more realistic

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radley
Great piece - just wish I could control the audio volume.

Curious if HTML5 can do this yet...

~~~
Jare
Well, HTML5 can't _reliably_ do audio yet. :) But nothing in this animation
looks hard at all to recreate in JavaScript / HTML5. The most annoying bit
would be to convert the art pieces (which I assume are swf vector art) to a
format that you can render with HTML5. In Canvas, png sucks for magnification
and I'm not aware of any functional swf exporter + vector canvas renderer
library. If you go the DOM route with transforms, SVG may do the trick and
there should be vector tools that can import swf and export SVG.

In summary, HTML5 can definitely do it, but for now it's much easier in Flash.

