system maps, scale, and such

[Puke]

right, i didnt mean to suggest that there was a solid sheet of rock out there. if you zoom in on the image, you can see the individual objects.

i recal a bit from an old astronomy class that if the sun was the size of a basketball, the earth would be about the size of the head of a pin. the professor then explained that if the sun was "here" that the earth would be (pointing out the window and across the football field) "over there"

indeed, if you look at the orbital distances as Elowan suggests, it is clear that there is a vast amount of empty space out there. which reminds me of another slashdot story a while back. we have known for quite some time that well over 99.9% of matter is empty space, or 'nothing'

now recent discoveries about sub atomic particles has revealed that most of the Last .1 percent of matter is nothing as well. i suspect we will keep on going indefinitly, untill we realize that this whole universe and reality business is all made up. imaginary, that is. a work of fiction, as it were.