The Milky Way

Nicolaus Copernicus was a mathematician and astronomer from the 16th century - who rightly stated that the sun was at the centre of our little solar system - not the earth. 

Now at the time this didn't go down too well with the Catholic Church (all powerful in those days) - which decreed that God had  created man in his own image - according to the Bible anyway.

So it followed that the earth must be a very special place around which everything else revolved - at the heart of our solar system, the Milky Way, which was the known universe at the time.

But for his 'sin' in promoting science and reason Copernicus was terribly persecuted, accused of blasphemy and generally had his life made hell - by the holy men of his day. 

When I came across this wonderful photograph recently showing just a part of the Milky Way - which contains 84 million suns apparently - I was immediately reminded of Copernicus and his brave stand for logic, truth and science. 

Yet as impressive as the photo is it cannot so justice to the sheer vastness size of our universe - which has well over 100 billion galaxies with each containing around 100 billion suns.

Mind boggling to think how small and unimportant we really are - in the grand scheme of things.