Swedish Expert Reveals Some Mind-Blowing Facts About The Universe In One Of The Most Fascinating Quora Threads You'll Ever Come Across

A lot of people lose hours of their lives daydreaming and theorizing about various random topics. Some ponder what gives the sky its blue color, whether aliens exist, what it would feel like to live on another planet, and how vast the universe is, among other things.

Indeed, things are much more complex than you think, and sometimes our imaginations fall short of capturing the true magnitude of the situation. Fortunately, experts like Krister Sundelin exist to bring us face to face with the reality of the "unknown."

The Swedish e-learning producer from Gothenburg came to our rescue in a Quora thread that has since gone viral. A user was eager to know specific facts about the universe's size that blow people's minds, and Krister was on hand to deconstruct the realities into easily digestible pieces of information.

Many of us felt small and insignificant after hearing Krister's response. Although contemplating the vastness of the universe can be terrifying, it can also make us appreciate the present moment and make each interaction and experience feel more special.

Scientists estimate the universe's circumference to be around 93 billion light-years. According to the BBC, our galaxy (the Milky Way) is believed to be between 100,000 and 150,000 light-years in diameter.

Krister was gracious enough to provide some insight:

As Douglas Adams said, 'Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.' It is simply too big. And I think the reason is biological.

He went on to explain why it's difficult for individuals to grasp the magnitude of the universe:

We've evolved to perceive things on a scale from the width of a hair to the distance to the horizon. To survive on the savanna, we don't need to perceive things outside that scale, and it would likely just be a waste of energy. So evolution got rid of it or never evolved it.

Continue reading to find out the fascinating things Krister had to say.

A funny and engaging Quora response by Krister revealed just how vast the cosmos really is.

stellarium Wikimedia worldhistory.org Wikimedia eventhorizontelescope.org Krister Sundelin Krister Sundelin

Krister explains that humans use analogies and mathematics to enable us to visualize things that are far beyond what our imaginations can handle.

The fact that we can train our brains to make sense of it is still rather amazing and is a testament to the evolutionary strength of a generalized brain," he said. Which is a bit boring in a way—science fiction was more entertaining when we didn't know how big space was, and you could travel to another galaxy over the weekend. I guess that is one reason that I am so fond of Doctor Who—the writers don't give a flying fox about distances in space. Or time.

Our curiosity was piqued regarding Krister's perspective on life in light of the enormity of the universe. We wanted to know whether he felt small in comparison to it, or whether he felt more significant—or if each moment meant much more.

I will cheat a bit and say that the vastness of the universe both makes me feel insignificant, while at the same time I feel connected. On the one hand, you have Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, which really shows how all the things we think are so important actually are not. On the other hand, when I look at the stars, I am literally poked in my eyes by them. A little packet of energy has been sent by a distant star across vast oceans of space and time just to hit my retina, highlighting another favorite Sagan quote, that we are the universe made manifest in order to observe and understand itself. It is a very humbling and overwhelming experience, but also exhilarating and inspiring.

The last thing we wanted to know was Krister's opinion on Quora as a learning and educational resource. In his remarks, he lauded the community for its openness to sharing knowledge and experiences with others from different parts of the world.

The one thing that makes me stay on Quora is the same thing that makes it so well-suited for learning: it is a wonderful community of intelligent people who want to educate others simply because they have the knowledge and the will to teach. Also, the ability to not participate in discussions is great—you can disable comments, block people rather than shout back, delete rude and abusive comments to your answers, etc. Be Nice, Be Respectful is a great policy and a huge advantage for Quora compared to other platforms.

He also touched on some areas where the platform could do more to improve the user experience:

Like the search function, that Suggest Edit was removed, and the current focus on driving revenue and increasing membership. I understand the latter, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. And, of course, like all user-generated content, there is no guarantee that one answer is more truthful than any other. One indication is the number of upvotes, but that only tells you that the answer is well-liked, not necessarily true.

A lot of people on the Internet shared their opinions on how big the universe really is.

Others tried explaining how the size of the universe makes them feel.

In addition to being an e-learning producer, Krister also has experience in copywriting, game design, web development, and teaching.

Looking at his Quora profile, you can get a peek into the life of the Swede:

Born in 1970, I have survived disco, punk, prog, metal, synth, goth, and pop. I like food and chocolate too much, and I get hiccups from whisky (even if I like it a lot). I'm also introverted like heck.

Krister wields enormous influence on Quora as a result of his knowledge and experience. To date, he's received 48.6 million content views since joining the site in May 2014, across 21 different spaces.

Just last month, 2.2 million people viewed his articles on the site. This merely goes to prove how accurate the Swede's assertions are.

His astute responses to a wide range of topics have gone viral on the Internet, appearing in well-known publications like the Huffington Post and Forbes.

Krister mentions in one of his pieces that scientists believe the cosmos has been around for 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang. He also points out that the early stages of the universe's existence were characterized by inflation.

In addition, Krister points out that scientists believe the expansion of the cosmos is accelerating. Another thing the Swede says is that the cosmos "weighs too much," at least in comparison to how much we imagine it should weigh.

There seems to be some mass there that we can only detect through its gravitational influence, and there's a lot of it: five times more than regular observable matter. We have dubbed it 'dark matter' as a placeholder name: 'dark' because we can't observe it directly, and 'matter' because whatever it is, it has gravity, he says.

If you're interested in knowing more about the universe, this thread is a great place to start. Although it's lengthy and detailed, reading through these answers will leave you feeling like an expert on the planets and galaxies.

Did any of Krister's facts blow your mind? Let us know! We can't wait to hear what new discoveries might come from ongoing research into our universe.