Diameter of the Known Universe

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Bibliographic Entry	Result (w/surrounding text)	Standardized Result
Blair, William. Size Scales in Astronomy.November 2001.	"That this distance is deemed almost inconsequential compared with the most distant objects known in the universe, which are roughly 10 billion light years away."	20 billion light years
The Scale of Things. The Internet Stellar Database.	"And the distance to the edge of the known universe is around 100,000 million million million kilometers."	20 billion light years
God the Creator. goodnewsdaily.org. Number692. 30 April 30 2002.	"Latest estimates by astronomers tell us that the universe is 30 or 40 billion light years in diameter. In layman's terms, that means that it would take light (which travels at the speed of light J) 40 000 000 000 years to cross from one side of the universe to the other!"	30–40 billion light years
The Size and Shape of the Universe. infoplease.com.	"At present the universe is believed to be at least 10 billion light-years in diameter."	10 billion light years
Butterworth, Paul. Measuring the Size of the Universe. Imagine the Universe! NASA.	"The simple answer is that the observable Universe is about 10 billion light years in radius. That number is obtained by multiplying how old we think the Universe is by the speed of light."	20 billion light years

The universe that we know is made up of the solar system (sun, moon, and all of the planets), the stars, the galaxies, and the cosmos. Basically it's everything that is around us. But how big is it?

The large magnitude of the universe is unimaginable to us humans. To see how big the universe is, take this into perspective: the diameter of the entire solar system is about 8,000 million kilometers. The universe itself is about 10²⁶ meters. The nearest galaxy that is similar to that of earth is Andromeda. That alone is 10²¹ meters away. The center of out galaxy is 26,000 light years away from where we are. One light year is equal to almost 10 billion kilometers. That means in an airplane, it would take billions of years to reach it.

Modern science says that the known universe extends about 10 billion light years in all directions, and consists of 200 billion galaxies. This means it can take light approximately 20 billion years to cross from one side of the universe to the other. These numbers, however, are only of the known universe. No one knows exactly how big the universe actually is, or how far it extends.

Carmen Bissessar -- 2002

Bibliographic Entry	Result (w/surrounding text)	Standardized Result
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Physics. New York: Macmillan, 1996.	"The observable universe extends out to approximatly 10 billion light years away."	20 billion light years
Milton, Simon. The Oxford Book of Astronomy. New York: Oxford, 1998.	"Diameter of Universe 10^26 (miles)"	16 billion light years
Asimov, Isaac. The Collapsing Universe. New York: Walker, 1977.	"The nearest qusars are 3 billion light years from earth, while the most remote ones may be 6 times as far."	36 billion light years
The Really Big Numbers Page. (from Chalk Up Another One by Sidney Harris).	"Diameter of the Universe (10²⁶)" [Author did not include a unit.]	?
Size Scales in Astronomy. William P. Blair, Johns Hopkins University. Version 1.0, January 1996.	"On this scale, the 'edge' of the Universe, defined as the most distance known quasars some 10 billion light years."	20 billion light years

Christine McGrath -- 1999

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