From infinitely large to infinitely small...

Definition

Here is a trip here in the Universe from the largest to the smallest distance.
This notion of distance starts at 14 billion light years (size of the Universe) and ends at 10 atoms meter (size quark).
The visible universe has a radius of 14 billion light years just because it is aged about 14 billion years.
The true size of the universe must be larger than the visible universe, but we will not go any further.
Experimentally, the size of an elementary fermion has never been measured, a quark is a fermion Basic.
A quark is a particle theory point, it should not have size...

10²⁶ meters

A 14 billion light years away, every little dot is a galaxy superclusters.
There are approximately 10 million superclusters of galaxies in the visible Universe.

This distance is equal to 100 yottameters

The galaxies in the universe tend to congregate in large sheets and superclusters of galaxies surrounding large voids, which gives the appearance cellular universe.
Because the light in the universe can travel at finite speed, we see objects on the edge of the universe when it was very young, there are 14 billion years.

10²⁵ meters

1 billion light years is a distance at which you can see a structure of super clusters of galaxies.

This distance is equal to 10 yottameters.

If we can assume that the universe at very large scale is homogeneous, its screen becomes apparent on scales beyond 300 million light-years. The first level of structuring is a form that can not be easily described. Astronomers speak and walls, filaments, sheets or crepes,... to describe the morphology of the concentrations of galaxies, and structural foam, sponge, cloth spider to mention the very fabric of the universe.

10²⁴ meters

100 million light years is the distance at which we can see the galaxy clusters.

This distance is equal to 1 yottameter.

Where filaments meet several or more layers, the concentration of galaxies is higher, reflecting the structures more easily identifiable, and appear as aligned in chains. They are the ones who take the name of superclusters.
The superclusters commonly contain several thousand galaxies.

Pegasus-Pisces A Horologium-Reticulum, Hydra-Centaurus (Great Attractor), Shapley Concentration,...

10²³ meters

At 10 million light years away, a galaxy is seen as a point.

This distance is equal to 100 zettameters.

The current picture of galaxies is in fact very far from that in the past made universe islands. archipelagos of stars.
Galaxies are not autonomous objects but are in constant interaction with other galaxies of the cluster to which they belong.
Collisions are not uncommon, and tidal interactions are almost the rule. It follows that galaxies evolve, change shape and characteristics during their lifetime.

10²² meters

A 1 million light years away you start to see the disk of a galaxy.
This distance is equal to 10 zettameters.

There are so many galaxies in the observable universe, they are part of a broad range of masses and dimensions, and take a wide variety of forms.
Astronomer Edwin Hubble was however able to identify a limited number of basic morphologies.
In summary, we identified three main types: elliptical galaxies, spheroidal in shape and more or less flattened, and spiral galaxies, with a spheroidal central, extended by a disk, which develop spiral arms, and galaxies irregular.

10²¹ meters

At 100 miles light years away we see the structure of galaxies, the arms, the central disc,...
This distance is equal to 1 zettameter.

The intergalactic gas is collected in the galactic disk, in which the stars meet.
The stellar disk of the Milky Way, for example, measuring not more than 70 000 light years in diameter, but hydrogen is observable within a radius of 100 000 light years in diameter.
There are other interstellar matter most densely grouped in the form of molecules and dust in great clouds, giant molecular clouds.

10²⁰ meters

At 10 miles light years away we start to see the stars of a galaxy.
This distance is equal to 100 exameters.

In the Milky Way, it was born an average of four or five stars each year.
These births take place by fits and starts, in areas where focused enough raw materials: hydrogen, the main constituent of interstellar clouds.
The preferred providers of this gas will be cold and dusty giant molecular clouds.
In a galaxy like the Milky Way, the sites of star formation are therefore focus where the giant molecular clouds in spiral arms and in the most central of the Galaxy.

10¹⁹ meters

 A thousand light years away you can see the whitish spots representing the large number of stars in the galaxy.
This distance is equal to 10 exameters.

Two out of three times, the stars belong to a couple, where both components revolve around their common center of gravity.
Just like our Sun, the stars are masses of plasma (gas increased to very high temperature), to form generally spherical or ellipsoidal, rotating on themselves, extremely bright, and whose energy is radiated to the essentially in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

10¹⁸ meters

 A 100 light years away we see the distribution of stars of a galaxy.
This distance is equal to 1 exameter.

The stars are unevenly distributed across the sky. They include first galaxies, and the white trace in which the galaxy appears to us is the manifestation of such clusters.
But the stars gregarity is also evident at scales smaller within galaxies.
For example, the Pleiades, the Hyades (constellation Taurus), Praesepe (in Cancer) and the cluster of the hair of Berenice.

10¹⁷ meters

 A 10 light years away we see each point representing the stars in the galaxy.
This distance is equal to 100 petameters.

The stars are born in clusters from the fragmentation and contraction of portions of cold interstellar clouds.
A few hundred thousand years, these gaseous condensations rich molecules and dust form cocoons in the heart relatively compact area which accumulates under the influence of gravity to create a protostar that will shine more and consuming more fuel.

10¹⁶ meters

 1 A light-year away from our galaxy the sun appears to observers outside our galaxy.
This distance is equal to 10 petameters.

In the vastness of the universe, the Sun is simply a star among millions of others. And, for the Earth, on the contrary, it is the center around which it revolves, and his home life.
Most stars live in a relationship with a star, sometimes more. From this point of view the Sun is therefore a minority.
Its mass is relatively large, and the vast majority of stars have masses and much more modest dimensions.

10¹⁵ meters

 A 1000 billion km away from our galaxy, the sun appears a little larger to observers outside our galaxy.
This distance is equal to 1 petameter.

Just like our Sun, the stars are masses of plasma (gas increased to very high temperature), to form generally spherical or ellipsoidal, rotating on themselves, extremely bright, and whose energy is radiated to the essentially in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

10¹⁴ meters

 100 billion kilometers, the distance that fully understands the orbits of the planets in our solar system.
This distance is equal to 100 terameters.

Before Kepler, it was believed that the orbits of the planets were circular.
They are actually elliptical, as well as those of their satellites, which follow a first approximation, like them, the laws of Kepler.

10¹³ meters

 10 billion km is the distance that includes most of the orbits of the planets in our solar system.
This distance is equal to 10 terameters.

Pluto and Charon are a couple of dwarf planets situated in the Solar System 5.9 billion kilometers. The couple performs its long circuit around the Sun in 250 years.
But its orbit, very elongated, the conduit for a short period, as was recently the case at a distance less than that of Neptune.

10¹² meters

 1 billion km, the distance that fully understands the orbit of asteroids in our solar system, it is located between Mars and Jupiter.
This distance is equal to 1 terameter.

Asteroids are rocky bodies smaller than a thousand kilometers) devoid of atmosphere, which is mainly in the internal regions of the solar system, especially between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

10¹¹ meters

 100 million kilometers, the distance which covers almost the entire orbit of Venus. The second planet closest to the center of the solar system.
This distance is equal to 100 gigameters.

Venus revolves around the Sun at a distance of 108.2 million kilometers.

10¹⁰ meters

 10 million km, the distance that has 10 times the orbit of the Moon around the Earth.
This distance is equal to 10 gigameters.

10 million km, the equivalent of 10 round-trip Earth Moon.

10⁹ meters

 1 million km, the distance that fully understands the orbit of the Moon.
This distance is equal to 1 gigameter.

1 million kilometers, equivalent to 1 return Earth Moon. The diameter of the Sun is approximately 1.5 million kilometers.

10⁸ meters

 100 miles kilometers is the distance at which we begin to guess our Earth.
This distance is equal to 100 megameters.

100 miles kilometers, equivalent to 10 times the diameter of the Earth.

10⁷ meters

10 thousand kilometers, is the distance that includes an entire hemisphere of Earth.
This distance is equal to 10 megameters.

The diameter of the Earth is 12,756 kilometers.

10⁶ meters

Thousand kilometers, the distance that includes the entire area of France.
This distance is equal to 1 megameter.

Almost hexagonal in shape and average size, making it between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, a narrow isthmus at the western end of the continent.
It stretches from north to south over a length of 973 km and reaches a maximum width from east to west, about 950 km.

10⁵ meters

100 kilometers is the distance that includes a large part of a French department.

Metropolitan France has 22 regions, which are subdivided into 96 departments and 3 808 cantons. These regions are: Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandy, Burgundy, Brittany, Central Region, the Region Champagne-Ardenne, Corsica, Franche-Comté, Haute-Normandie, Île-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrenees, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Pays de la Loire, Picardie, Poitou-Charentes, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) and the Région Rhône-Alpes.

10⁴ meters

10 km is the distance at which you can see a city like Toulouse.

Toulouse, a city in southern France, capital of the department of Haute-Garonne and the Midi-Pyrenees, situated on the Garonne and the Canal du Midi. The town of Toulouse is the fourth largest city in France.
Toulouse, the sixth of France, concentrates a quarter of the population of the Midi-Pyrenees, it polarizes the bulk of the population and economic growth.

10³ meters

1 km, the distance at which you can see a village like Auzielle in Haute Garonne.

Auzielle my village
- 1 579 people (May 1999)
- A nursery school (2 classes)
- A primary school (5 classes)
- A library

10² meters

100 meters is the distance at which one can see a quarter of a village.

Surface may show some 25 houses. My subdivision.

10¹ meters

10 meters is the distance at which one can guess the leaves of trees.

Trees are perennials, woody, with the main stem or trunk, is at least 6 m. The redwoods from North America and eucalyptus from Australia may exceed 110 m, with trunks whose circumference is 26 m.
In Europe, the largest trees are spruce, peaking at 60 m.

10⁰ meter

1 meter, the distance at which you can see the branches of trees.

The branch or twig supports the leaves of a tree or shrub.
The leaves, specialized in photosynthesis, exist in almost all plants.