Wordie [wûrd • ē]
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27 wordies list
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first listed by:
eggplantia5 (2920 words)
appears in these lists:
Samme's Words, by Samme
G, by georgielily
aebl's Words, by aebl
Star Wars words, by fer_k
Rhymeless., by Papageno
the universe, by elfflame
Benandanti, by Treeseed
whales's list, by whales
My Little Ponies, by Star
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The Mount Palomar observatory telescope's reflector (some 16 feet in diameter, I believe) sees this much of the sky in its field of vision: hold out a poppy seed at arm's length up against the sky and that's it! If the telescope were to pan the heavens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it would take 1000 years to finally cover the night sky...and that's just the half it can see! Now, in that poppy-seed-field-of-view mostly what's seen are not stars, but GALAXIES, each containing untold billions of stars in its own right. Try to get your head around that!! This analogy, best as I remember, was presented in "First Light: the Search for the Edge of the Universe" by Richard Preston (1980). Highly recommended; a real cosmic thriller.
For more see moon.