Earth's Location in the Universe
Earth → Solar System → Solar Interstellar Neightborhood → Milky Way Galaxy → Local Galactic Group → Virgo Supercluster → Observable Universe → Universe → Unknown (our Universe might be a part of Multiverse)
Earth - 12,700 km in diameter - Our planetOrbit of the Moon - 770,000 km across - The average diameter of the orbit of the Moon relative to the Earth
Earth's Orbit - 300 million km across (2 AU) - The average diameter of the orbit of the Earth relative to the Sun. Contains the Sun, Mercury and Venus
Inner Solar System - 6 AU across - Contains the Sun, the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) and the asteroid belt
Outer Solar System - 60 AU across - Surrounds the inner Solar System; comprises the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune)
Kuiper Belt - 96 AU across - Belt of icy objects surrounding the outer solar system. Contains the dwarf planets Pluto, Haumea and Makemake
Heliosphere - 160 AU across - Maximum extent of the Solar wind and the interplanetary medium
Scattered Disk - 200 AU across - Region of sparsely scattered icy objects surrounding the Kuiper belt. Contains the dwarf planet Eris
Oort Cloud - 100,000–200,000 AU across (2–4 light-years) - Spherical shell of over a trillion comets
Solar System - 4 light-years across - Our home planetary system. At this point, the Sun's gravity gives way to that of surrounding stars
Gould Belt - 3,000 light-years across - Ring of young stars through which our Sun is currently travelling
Orion Arm - 10,000 light-years in length - The spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy through which our Sun is currently travelling
Orbit of the Solar System - 56,000 light years across - The average diameter of the orbit of the Sun relative to the Galactic Center. Our Sun's orbital radius is roughly 28,000 light years, or slightly over half way to the galactic edge. One orbital period of our Solar System lasts between 225 and 250 million years
Milky Way Galaxy - 100,000 light-years across - Our home galaxy, composed of 200 billion to 400 billion stars and filled with the interstellar medium
Local Group - 3 megaparsecs across - Group of at least 47 galaxies. Dominated by Andromeda Galaxy (the largest), The Milky Way and Triangulum; the remainder are small dwarf galaxies
Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex - 300 megaparsecs across - The galaxy filament of which the Virgo Supercluster is a part
Beyond - Size Unknown - Our universe might be a part of multiverse, omniverse, and/or other hypothetical concepts
Explanation of units:
- 1 AU or Astronomical Unit is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 150 million km. Earth's orbital diameter is twice its orbital radius, or 2 AU
- One light-year is the distance light travels in a year; equivalent to 9.46 trillion km or 63,200 AU
- A parsec is 3.26 light-years
- One megaparsec is equivalent to one million parsecs or 3.26 million light-year
Images Credit: Andrew Z. Colvin
Explanation from: http://en.wikipedia.org
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