Expanse of the Universe and Gita Verses
The universe is not just expanding but the galaxies in it are, in general, accelerating away from other galaxies. If the space was also created along with the matter in the universe, what is the universe (and the space itself) expanding into? And where are the galaxies accelerating to?
Human Speeds
Average walking speed: 3-4 miles per hour (5-6 kilometers per hour
Average running speed: 6-8 miles per hour (10-13 kilometers per hour)
*Maximum running speed: 27 miles per hour (44 kilometers per hour)
(*Based on the world record set by Ussain Bolt in 2009 World Championship in Berlin.)
Animal Speeds
Maximum speed on land (by Cheeta): upto 64 miles per hour (103 kilometers per hour
Maximum diving speed on air by peregrine falcon: upto 240 miles per hour (386 kilometers per hour)
Car/Train/Plane/Spacecraft Speeds
Average car speed (on highways): 60 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour)
Racing cars speed (NASCAR and Formula 1): over 200 miles per hour (320 kilometers per hour)
Fastest train speed: over 200 miles per hour (320 kilometers per hour)
Average commercial plane speed: 500 miles per hour (800 kilometers per hour)
Fighter jet speeds: 1,500 to 1,900 miles per hour (2,400 to 3,000 kilometers per hour)
Fastest Rocket / Spacecraft speed: 364,660 mph (586,800 kmph)
(set by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe)
Speed of light (in space/vacuum): 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilemeters per second)
Earth, Moon and Sun
Diameter of the earth: about 8,000 miles (12,700 kilometers)
Circumference of the earth: about 25000 miles (40,000 kilometers)
Number of times the light can travel around the earth in 1 second: ~7.5 times
Average distance of the moon from the earth: 238,900 miles (384,400 kilometers)
Time for the light to travel from the moon to the earth: ~1.3 seconds
Average distance of the sun from the earth: 93 million miles (150 million kilometers)
Time for the light to travel from the sun to the earth: about 8 minutes and 20 seconds
1 Light-year is the distance the light travels in 1 year. It means the light
travels about 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers) in 1 year.
365 days X 24 hours X 60 minutes X 60 seconds X 186,000 kilometers:
= 5,879,925,419,515 miles (5.88 trillion miles)
365 days X 24 hours X 60 minutes X 60 seconds X 300,000 kilometers:
= 9,460,800,000,000 kilometers (9.46 trillion kilometers)
Proxima Centauri (the nearest star from our Sun)
Distance of Proxima Centauri (nearest star from our solar system): about 40,208,000,000,000 km
(about 40 trillion km)
Time for today's fastest spacecraft to reach Proxima Centauri from the earth: about 7,822 years
Time for the light to travel from Proxima Centauri to the earth: about 4.3 years (light-years)
Galaxies and Galaxy Clusters
We are in the Milky Way galaxy. Andromeda is the nearest galaxy from our galaxy.
Both Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are in the Virgo Supercluster, which in turn, is in
the bigger Laniakea Supercluster.
Diameter of Milky Way galaxy: 100,000 light-years
Number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy: 100-400 billion
Distance between Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies: 2.5 million light-years
(Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are part of the Virgo supercluster.
The Virgo Supercluster, in turn, is a part of the bigger galaxy supercluster
known as Laniakea Supercluster.)
Diameter of Virgo Supercluster: 110 million light-years
Diameter of Laniakea Supercluster: 520 million light-years
Number of galaxies in the observable universe: about 2 trillion
Thus, the estimated number of stars in the "observable" universe is about 4 hundred billion trillion (400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) and our Sun is just one of them!
The Big Bang and the Universe
The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation for how the universe began. According to this theory, the universe started from an extremely hot and dense singularity approximately 13.8 billion years ago. This singularity then expanded and continues to expand, leading to the universe and hundreds of billions of galaxies along with the vastly empty space that we observe today using very powerful telescopes like Hubble telescope and JWST (James Web Space Telescope).
Age of the universe: ~13.8 billion years
(compare to the age of the earth: ~4.3 billion years)
Diameter of the observable universe: ~93 billion light-years
The universe is not just expanding, the galaxies are even accelerating away depending on the distance. Galaxies separated by 2 parsecs will increase their speed by 142 kilometers every second. Once you get out to 4,200 megaparsecs away, two galaxies will see each other traveling away faster than the speed of light!
A Few Questions
- Where did the singularity come from?
- If the space itself was created during the Big Bang and the Universe is expanding along with the space, what is it expanding into?
- If the distant galaxies are moving away faster than the speed of light, where are they heading to?
Related Geeta Verses
Let's review some verses from Shrimadbhagavadgita.
All the beings enter into the God's prakriti at the end of kalpa
Lord Krishna says to Arjun:
O Son of Kunti, all the beings enter my
prakriti (nature). I create them in the beginning of kalpa
(eon, a day of Brahma or a period of about 4.32 billion years)
and destroy them at the end of kalpa.
| 1 Yuga Cycle | 4 Yugas | Satya (1,728,000 years) Treta (1,296,000 years) Dwapar (864,000 years) Kali (432,000 years) |
4,320,000 years |
| 1 Manwantara | 71 Yuga cycles | 71 cycles of Satya, Treta, Dwapar and Kali each | 306,720,000 years |
| 1 kalpa | 14 Manwantaras | 1000 Yuga Cycles 1 day (or night) of Brahma |
4,294,080,000 years |
| 1 maha-kalpa | life (100 years) of Brahma | 3,600 kalpa (Brahma-day) + 3,600 pralaya (Brahma-night) | 311.04 trillion years |
All the worlds accelerate towards the God, while being destructed
Arjun, on seeing the universal form of God, says to Lord Krishna:
Just as the moths enter the blazing fire, with increasing speeds
(i.e., acceleration), for destruction, the worlds enter your mouths
with increasing speeds (i.e., acceleration), during destruction.
The creation and destruction of the worlds is repetitive!
Lord Krishna says to Arjun:
The worlds (lokas) and/or the peoples from up to the Brahma's world, keep returning again,
O Arjun. But having approached me, O son of Kunti, there is no rebirth.