This one a little more on the levity side than the last...
And the updated lyrics, for those who wish to know such things
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at 1742km an hour (at the equator),
That's orbiting at around 29km a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of almost all our power (barring geothermal & nuclear).
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at 225km/sec
In an outer spiral arm, at roughly 402,000km an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred to 400 billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side (+/- 20,000 light years).
It bulges in the middle, between 10 and 30 thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's more like 1 to 10 thousand light years wide.
We're actually about thirty thousand light years from the large central black hole.
We go 'round every 220 to 250 million years,
And our galaxy is only one of approximately trillions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz, (in accordance with Hubble's Law)
As fast as it can go, at just under the speed of light, you know,
299 million, 792 thousand, 458 m/s, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your particular genome,
And hope that SETI finds intelligent life up there in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.
Thanks ever so much to Dave The Happy Singer for accompaniment, a bit of moral support and the use of his guitar when mine failed to make any noises, Kylie Sturgess for the video and for ably manning the timer at Skepticator Live, @tinydalek for convincing me I would only make a partial idiot of myself, Pamela Gay who did actually help a bit despite a punishing schedule and everyone who turned up to the Skepticator Live Open Mic Night (especially the speakers).
Special shout out to to Phil Plait who didn't help, thus enabling me to do the Wil Wheaton joke.
posted @ Tuesday, November 30, 2010 12:43 AM