1.b.11 – What is the astronomical collocation of man environment?

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December 22, 2009 — Riccardo Sabellotti - Giacinto Sabellotti

What is the astronomical collocation of man environment?

The man then, for a microscopic period, lives and interacts with the surrounding environment of planet Earth, but this in turn is part of more complex systems:

– planet Earth is positioned in the solar system, i.e. an assembly of celestial bodies who suffer the gravitational attraction of the Sun. In the solar system there are eight planets with their satellites, some tens of thousands of asteroids, a massive number of comets and countless meteorites;

– the solar system is located, along with at least another 200 billion stars in the galaxy, In the Milky Way;

– the Milky Way, together with at least thirty other galaxies, is part of the Local Group. This definition seems bizarre in relation to the inordinate size of that group, but is instead significant, compared to the immensity of the Universe.

Cosmology is the science that seeks to understand the Universe as a whole, with the widest possible scale. The developments of physics and astronomy and the increasingly advanced technology can extend more and more the cosmic horizon, but what is currently known is already more than enough to be aware of the fact that man environment, the planet Earth, is practically a speck of dust in the immensity of cosmos.