The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the well-known Ring Nebula with unprecedented detail. Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the Ring Nebula is an archetypal planetary nebula.

The value of a googol

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Humans have existed for 300,000 years.

The earth for 4,500,000,000.

The universe is 13,800,000,000 year old. Eventually, it will fall into a perpetual coma of absolute zero: frigid, lifeless, limply stable, what scientists call the Big Freeze. This should happen in approximately a googol years, or 10^100, give or take a few gazillion.

1 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 years is a googol.

That’s some big-picture context.

Published by Adrian Camilleri

Content creator and founder of PhilosophyMT

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