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This Is What The Entire Universe Looks Like And It's Blowing People's Mind

This Is What The Entire Universe Looks Like And It's Blowing People's Mind

It looks amazing

James Dawson

James Dawson

Whenever I start trying to comprehend the size of the universe - and our relative insignificance compared to everything out there - I get weirded out. I mean, most of the time I'm looking at the world from my own solipsistic viewpoint, so it freaks my nut to think that, actually, I'm very small. And the Earth's very small. And hell, the Sun's relatively pretty small too.

A lot of time, I just try not to think about it. Because it's paralysing. It makes everything else you do - the 9-5, the trips to the pub, the time you spend watching Netflix in bed, seem completely banal and meaningless. And really, if you want to get anything done, then you need that sense of purpose.

But, sometimes, like today, it comes up and I just think: it's actually kind of beautiful, isn't it?

Credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi

Musician Pablo Carlos Budassi created the above image after making hexaflexagons for his son's birthday one year.

In case you're wondering, hexaflexagons are flat models, usually constructed by folding strips of paper, that can be flexed or folded in certain ways to reveal faces besides the two that were originally on the back and front.

This video explains them better than I can:

In the image, the sun and the rest of our solar system are at the centre, followed by the outer ring of our Milky Way galaxy, moving out to other nearby galaxies, followed by the rest of the cosmic web, and finally background radiation leftover from the Big Bang, and finally a ring of plasma.

He based it on logarithmic maps of the universe from Princeton and images from NASA.

"When I was drawing hexaflexagons for my [son's] birthday souvenirs I started drawing central views of the cosmos and the solar system," Budassi told Tech Insider.

Hubble Space Telescope, shows a nearby spiral galaxy known as NGC 1433. Credit: PA Images

"That day the idea of a logarithmic view came, and in the next days I was able to [assemble] it with photoshop using images from NASA and some textures created by my own."

Amazing stuff. Although if you do find yourself staring at it long enough for your existence to seem trivial. it's probably a sign you need another of those 'meaningless' pub trips.

Featured Image Credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi​​

Topics: World News, science news