Scale

Back in the 1990s, movies could be pretty hit and miss. Some (including myself) would even say that genres like sci-fi, fantasy and superhero have "grown up" in the current era. But that doesn't mean that they didn't have their moments of pure genius. Men In Black was a both a box office hit and a critical success. But for me the most memorable moment was this:

Wow. How novel an idea is that? Our entire universe...could actually be just a marble in the hands of some random alien. What this scene really did for me was help me realize how important and exciting the concept of scale was. 

The difference in size between a very tiny object (atom) and a very large one (the sun) is mind boggling. But what was even more interesting was something I like to call "Infinite Scale". This is the idea that as science advances we will find smaller and smaller objects (neutrino) and on the other end of the spectrum, larger and larger ones (Sloan Great Wall). 

But hey, why listen to me drone on about it when instead you could play around with an awesome flash animation made by a couple of apparently genius teenagers:

Wicked-Awesome? Thought so. But there's an even better example of scale much closer to home:

It would take 1.3 million earths to fill 1 sun (source)

Now that..admittedly...is a little terrifying, and really puts a perspective on how far we are from the sun to be able to see it as a friendly, yellow floating smiley face (instead of that very ominous monster above).

To top off my discussion about scale I will leave you with this. Scientists now tell us that the largest scale possible is the "End of Greatness" , where the universe looks the same in all directions, and there is no longer any sense of being able to tell one part from another. You've basically zoomed out so far that it all looks like one big homogeneous structure....

Kinda looks like a marble wouldn't you say?